The Chessboard
by MarinaEverlasting
Summary: Dante and Lady are hired by a woman who claims to pay them a fortune for exterminate a demon that supposedly killed her daughter. In the end, the job proved to be much more dangerous than they expected. DantexLady.
1. Apertura

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 1: Apertura**

* * *

She passed one after another, the pages of an old book. She kept her eyes fixed on the worn yellowish paper of the grimoire that she was reading with total interest. A frivolous smile appeared on her lips.

Meanwhile, the rain fell outside, blurring the only window in the room with tiny drops that slid down the glass. The blond-haired woman watched it in silence, sitting in one of the chairs around the tea table. The aroma of peach delighted her before she suddenly closed the book and drank a careful sip of the steaming cup of European porcelain.

"A storm is coming ... and it seems it will be strong." She said loudly to herself as if she was the only one in the room, which wasn't entirely true. "I thought you liked this kind of weather, didn't you, Angelo?"

"Don't speak to me as if I was your disciple, Valeria." Countered a young boy who suddenly appeared in one of the empty chairs, with a small smirk.

"I'm not doing so." She said resting the tea cup on the small wooden table next to the book. She gave a sly look to the younger. "I'm just trying to be nice."

"...Sure..." He closed an eye. "Be 'nice' all you want, it won't make me forget _anything_." He glared, eyes cloudy. "... ...And incidentally, I already heard that the son of Sparda broke the fortress of Fortuna, killing his holiness and several servants of Mundus..." Angelo's smirk grew considerably. "Doesn't that mean that you will become the new mistress of ceremonies at the death of our priest? My, my... what a sweet coincidence, don't you think?"

She replied with a hearty laugh as she crossed her legs. "How harsh, how rancourous. I told myself that someone like you was the best company I might have for tea. I won't get bored at all. And what of it, hm? I'm sure you don't mind at all, about me being the _heiress _of the order. ...Or do you? Go ahead and say it out loud~, you and I know too well about the situation which we are now in, so there's no need to pretend between us." She sniggered.

"..." The black haired boy said absolutely nothing, maintaining a haughty look as he waited in silence for an explanation that could answer his question: why did she summon him, anyway?

"I love the way you're so insightful, Angelo. That's why I'd like to talk with you about a certain topic in question, even if you don't want to nor like me."

"And what kind of business could our new mistress have with me, hmm?"

Valeria twisted her smile so it would match with the permanent smirk that decorated the face of the younger slayer.

"Even though you have a vague idea of what I want to do, you still dare to ask me? You will never cease of surprising me." She replied visibly amused.

"..." Angelo remained silent for several seconds, considering his response. "...I see... so you finally decided to advance your move..." he finally said, seeming to understand the situation. "I doubt Mundus will be very happy about that... but you don't give a shit about it, right?"

"My, my..." She cackled with great fun. "You didn't need to reply me like that… what a harsh person you are..."

"Are you sure you will have enough with using me as an executioner?" He asked, ignoring Valeria's mocking. "The chances of finding that woman are very close to zero, and let me remind you that this is one of the many reasons why we have continued to fail again and again."

Valeria's bold expression hadn't faltered once before now, she seemed to enjoy herself even though her companion was constantly putting obstacles to her not-so noble intentions. Yes, you could even say that she, somehow, seemed to have fun.

"You're right…" She nodded. "She is a very clever fox who has denied the inevitable for a very long time… no matter how many times we went after her, she would just run away and that's all." She poured more tea into the fancy cup until the dark and smoky liquid overflowed. "Tell me Angelo… What should I do to trick a wily fox?" She drank the liquid in one but careful gulp.

"...Even though I'm now starting to hate with all my heart your stupid riddles, I think I'll follow your game for a little while longer..." He sighed, closing his eyes as the blonde woman looked at him with amusement. "Perhaps the key to get her lies in the fact of making her come to us. Getting her attention will do the trick..." He reasoned. "Those are your thoughts, right?"

"The game will start very soon..." She answered deterring the question, but Angelo took the small smile that remained on her lips as a 'yes'. "...And why don't begin it with all the pawns ready, hmm?" Both of them started laughing loudly and ominously. "We will surely find her, I can tell."

* * *

"Can you turn off that damn music and listen when I'm talking, Dante?" Lady gave him an icy stare from the front seat while making gestures of annoyance, but Dante, greatly amused, ignored them while he followed the rhythm of the frenetic melody with his foot. In his right hand he carried a portion of his favorite food, pizza. Lady sometimes wondered if he really never came to hate said food.

The song that played on the jukebox pierced her eardrums considerably, and she wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the day she had a headache. Of course, that fact only increased the terrible desire she had to kill him right there, but that wouldn't benefit her in the future, so that was basically why she was making the great effort of contain her anger and not riddle with bullets the demon that sat in front of her and dared to smile arrogantly. Clearly, if things weren't like that, Dante would have a beautiful and bloody hole adorning his forehead by now.

Lady heaved a long sigh.

"There is this girl who was killed a few days ago," she said as she left over the wooden desk in front of her a small piece of paper with some notes written in it. "…And other people who disappeared weeks ago have now appeared dead in different parts of the city."

Dante took the paper from the desk with his free hand while the other was still holding the piece of pizza he was eating. His left foot was still kicking the ground, raising a little dust in the process.

"Her mother hired me and showed me the research that she made on her own about this incident. It proved that a demon was the main focus in this subject, so I recommended you myself." She said before he would ask her -if he were really going to ask her.

"And now I am the one who must find and kill the demon that did all that, right?" He asked, showing that, despite the loud background music, he was listening to her.

"Exactly."

Dante left the paper on the desk -Lady doubted he had the time to read it properly- again and raised an eyebrow as he gave a slight bite to his pizza. His expression was pensive and, actually, that was a good sign, because it meant that he was considering her offer, that he was thinking about it. …After all, Dante didn't know when he was losing a good job and since she was familiarized with that sort of stuff, that made her a reliable person in that area even though she usually… well, 'tricked' him with the payment of her jobs.

"You said that other people besides the daughter of this woman also disappeared weeks ago and now were found dead, right?" The brunette nodded and, with her approval, Dante continued. "How many people died? A lot of them? A few?"

"…Well," she began. "If I'm not mistaken, the average number of people killed so far would be around twenty-three."

"Huh?" Muttered the stunned demon, leaving his routine piece of food in the greasy box with a sudden loss of appetite. "Don't you think that's too many?"

"Of course, that's why I gave you this job, after all." The huntress leaned further into her seat and gave him a mischievous smile. "Because you will accept it, right?"

Again, Dante returned to remain silent with a serious expression, though not for too long. She was totally unaware of what was going through his head, but she soon saw the half-demon smiling mischievously at her as he put his legs over the messy and dusty desk.

"Babe, as long as you come with me, I won't have any objections." He finally said, breaking the silence between them, adding a flirty wink that made the brunette demon huntress roll her eyes in frustration. Typical.

"Okay, okay then. Tomorrow we will inform the customer." She said with emphasis. "I pointed out the direction and also the time when I decided to talk to her about it on that paper, so you better come there soon." She said, but Dante seemed to be more entertained looking at her cleavage than listening to her. "No need to tell you what I'm gonna do to you if you're late."

Dante raised his hands in defeat, smiled with arrogance and, for the first time in all day, looked into her eyes.

"Definitely, not necessary."

And then Lady got up and walked towards the door as Dante's eyes observed with delight the movement of her slender legs. The half demon smiled with amusement at the great views that the brunette gave him now from behind. How many times had he fantasized about explicit and obscene things with her that even the naughtiest person in the world would blush just by thinking about them? Many times, a lot, actually. Not even the fingers of both of his hands could count the times in which he had to take cold showers because of those fantasies or because of her opened blouses. Sometimes, if not almost always, Dante thought of her as someone more important than a partner in the business or as someone who occasionally came to troll and bitch at him and take his money.

Unfortunately, that feeling wasn't reciprocated in the same way by Lady. In fact, a single act or comment from him that promised something more than just a simple relationship between the two of them was received by Lady with overwhelming anger, and then he ended with his face riddled with bullets.

Her violent attitude had never managed to stop his attempts to seduce her, anyway. No matter how much ammunition she emptied into his head or how many punches he received from her, he kept trying, and his permanent grin every time she was beside him was the irrefutable proof that he was certain that, one day, she would fall into his arms. It was only a matter of time, of course.

...Now that he remembered all his failed attempts... Today it was raining, a lot, too much for comfort, and the wind, even though it wasn't as strong as to take down someone of his size, could be mistaken by the ones of a typhoon. It was surely a windy rain. And besides, it was getting late...

"Do you really want to go now, with this entire storm dropping out?" The mocking voice of the platinum haired hunter was heard in the tense silence before the woman had the chance of opening the door to get out from there.

"I can take care of myself." She said turning her head toward him, holding the handle of the newly fixed door.

"But it's raining a lot and you didn't even bring your bike with you." He smiled wickedly. "I wouldn't forgive myself if you catch a cold."

Lady rolled her eyes again at the constant obstacles that Dante was putting on her.

"Where are you getting at?" She asked while puffing angrily.

"Well, you could stay here and wait for the storm to cease." He rose from his seat and approached her. His smile widened significantly and, of course, the brunette huntress didn't like it one bit. "I promise that I will behave myself for most of the time."

Lady placed her finger on her lips, pretending that she was considering Dante's offer.

"…Hmm, let me think about it… no."

"Ouch, that hurt me, Lady." He said as he propped his hands on his chest, making a dramatic pose. "You just broke my heart into thousands of tiny pieces, you know?"

"I have no time for your bullshit, Dante."

…And as if the weather wanted prove her right, at that moment, just when the huntress slammed the door shut, there was a huge lightning that, by the thundering sound that it made, seemed to hit nearby. After that, Dante found himself all alone in the dark, because thanks to that lightning, the lights had gone, along with the stereo, which had fallen silent at the end of the song and all it could be heard was the relentless sound of the falling rain. With a grunt of dissatisfaction, the half demon made his way to the desk of his office and took the paper that Lady gave him for the job. Then, thanks of his heightened senses that were more developed than the ones of a human, he could read the annotations that the huntress wrote there even being in total darkness. The street, the house number of the customer and the time in which he had to be present were recorded in a quick and nearly illegible handwriting, characteristic of Lady. That made him grin madly, because in his imagination, and if he took things out of context, it seemed as if he and she were going to have a date.

* * *

Sitting on a filthy stool, the golden-haired demoness looked with boredom the dusty and dirty bar counter in which her arms were resting at that moment. In the background she could hear the constant bellowing of some mercenaries that were on the verge of reaching the state of coma. The mercenaries that didn't have any trace of shame or pride that dared to look at her naughtily and even make obscene gestures to her that she completely ignored, because if she didn't, she was sure she would have reduced that local into ashes and rubble by now.

And speaking of the local… Dear God, what a place it was… For starters, the infernal tavern was small, very small, which facilitated that the smell of snuff, alcohol and sweat mingled with each other, forming a new type of scent that just the act of smelling it produced headache. At least, as a consolation, she was already used to it, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't unpleasant at all.

Then, most of the 'wildlife' that swarmed through there was… Well, 'unpleasant', and the worst thing of all was that it was increasing; veteran mercenaries were running short and the amateur ones seemed to emulate the same behavior of those annoying drunkards. In other words, there wasn't a middle point.

All those facts made her grow moody at times, and her concerns and conspiracy theories about the latest incidents occurred in the city also pissed her off. Although she was actually very close to Devil May Cry –only a few miles away from there- and nothing bad should happen, she still had the strange feeling that something was not quite all right, and that bothered her… But well, what the hell, it was natural to think that things were not going well considering the situation which they were now in, because in those moments, the entire population of the city thought like her, because things had taken a strange and twisted path.

The city, which had remained at a level of standard demonic activity, now showed a rate that exceeded the normal. Many people, from what she had heard, were terrified by that fact. There were even people who said that currently, the number of demons in the city exceeded those that had once been in there when the Temen Ni Gru was raised, and that's saying a lot considering the catastrophe that it resulted, with so many deaths and so many failed evacuations.

And that's why Trish wanted to return to the city, return to Devil May Cry. She wanted to know if everything was okay and if Dante had a vague idea of what was happening, because it didn't matter how many questions about that matter she asked or how many attempts to get information she made; she still had no answer.

"My, my… You look worried, dear. What's going through your pretty head?" Asked a voice whose owner hadn't been noticed by her at first, but when she lifted up her eyes to locate him, she found him right in front of her. He was a young man with black disheveled hair, possessor of two powerful and haunting green eyes, a gaze that spoke for itself. Trish smiled, pleased to see him.

"Hey, Thomas." She said in a way of greeting. "Where the fuck have you been all this time? I was beginning to think that you had fallen off the toilet."

"Always so vulgar…" replied the bartender, laughing, visibly amused. "You know, when it makes this kind of weather for such a long time, people as wimpy as I often catch colds of epic proportions. I thought someone like you could understand something as simple as that, but perhaps that saying about blonde women is true, anyway."

"Heh, here I am, worried about you, and you're making jokes about the connection between the color of my hair and my intelligence." She said acting like a victim. "How cruel… I thought we were friends."

"And we are, dear, and we are. Don't you remember that time when you got so wasted that I had to take you home before you had the awesome idea of climbing one of the tables of the bar and try to dance like a pole dancer?"

The demoness laughed at the vague memory of that night in which she managed to beat Dante's record of getting drunk in less than ten minutes.

"We're like the bestest, bestest friends, aren't we?" She said while laughing along with him.

…And it wasn't a lie, of course. Trish established a good friendship with Thomas, who proved to be more sympathetic than the bar owner, who was just as rude as the specimens that frequented that place. Seeing him again after so long really made her day, or at least slightly. Besides, it was always good to talk with him, and not just for having a laugh, but also for business topics, since Thomas usually informed her about rumors he occasionally heard in work while serving beers and other kind of alcoholic stuff to mercenaries. …in that moment, the blonde woman needed urgently that kind of information, something that could answer her concerns.

…Thomas noticed it, though. The disturbed face that she made when they stopped laughing at the same time was like an open book to him, reading it with ease.

"…But you surely didn't come here today to see my ever so beautiful face or to chat with me, did you, Trish?" Touché. He hit the nail on the head. "What has upset you this time, hmm?"

"…I …I was just thinking…" The demoness supported her right fist on her cheek with a thoughtful gesture, heaving a sigh in the process. "There has been a lot of demonic activity recently, more than usual… Then there's this issue of the missing people that were found dead, their bodies all mutilated, which it's a great proof that something's off, but even so, the demons that I found and killed so far were too weak to do something as brutal as that… Well, it's weird." She concluded with a frown.

"Ah, yes…" Said the waiter while nodding. "I've heard about it on the TV. The murders." As he spoke, Thomas took a glass and a bottle at his feet and then poured the liquid in the glass container and handed it to Trish. "Now that I think about it, a guy walking around here also complained about something like that, more or less…" He put the bottle of liquor on a shelf under his feet and then rested his arms on the bar in a casual and friendly pose while continuing his dialogue. "Apparently, he was assigned a work of extermination in the outskirts of the city, nothing unusual, apparently."

"And then?" The blonde asked, raising an eyebrow before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well," he continued, "recently, perhaps a few hours before, he returned wounded, saying that he had seen a man among all that demonic chaos without even flinching."

"A man, you say…?" She asked. Thomas nodded.

"His fellow companions didn't seem to believe his fantastic story but, maybe, you will appreciate better this story, since you have seen stranger things than them."

…A man, heh? Trish thought that, maybe, he could be a demon in human disguise, and that would explain, somehow, the great demonic activity in this city. Something was commanding all these creatures to kill humans, and that something could be him, with the purpose of, perhaps, conquering the human realm or perhaps to gain power or something like that… Whatever it may be, the demoness had to communicate this to Dante, especially if things were coming to such extremes in which each passing day, the population of the city decreased dramatically, regardless of their gender and age.

"…And then, did I clarify your doubts, perhaps?"

"Hmm?" His voice was heard as an echo that broke all her train of thoughts. Trish came back to reality and looked at the black-haired man who smiled at her with complicity. "Oh, of course, Thomas." She said sarcastically with a smile. "You are pure love."

Trish drank the liquid from the glass in one gulp and quickly pulled out from the tight pocket of her trousers the money she owed to the waiter for her consumption.

"Perhaps, another day when I'm not too busy, I may enjoy more of your moronic company." She said with amusement from afar as she made her way to the exit door. "See you another day, little asshole."

And then she left, slamming the door shut.

Thomas, meanwhile, resumed the tasks he'd been performing before she came to talk with him with a long sigh, putting the money in the cash register and then serving the customers that were stacked across the bar. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at the situation, Thomas didn't have much work that day; the place was emptier than usual. His boss would certainly be pulling out his hair for all the losses of money that it was causing that rainy day, but on second thought, what hair would he be pulling out if that disgusting fatass was bald? The waiter smiled, amused by that thought.

Following the routine of his work, Thomas went to serve a client who sat in one of the gnawed stools on the other side of the bar. He seemed tired... or bored, just by looking at the way in which he sat… or maybe a mixture of both.

"Well, well… It seems we have a new face around here." He said with a raised eyebrow. "What do I serve thee, boy? I don't have all day."

The customer, with black hair and blue eyes, showed him a cruel smirk.

"Actually, I was already going to get out of here." He said with a tone of amusement, a deranged smirk on his lips.

* * *

**A/N: Well, chapter one is finished. If you see some kind of orthographic error or typographic error, please let me know it, since English is not my maternal language. All kind of constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks for reading.**

*** "Apertura", means "Opening". In the terminology of chess, the Opening is the beginning of the game, the first moves. Ah~, I feel so pedantic.**


	2. Abbaglio

**A/N: Gosh, I deeply appreciate the reviews I have received; they were unexpected and very motivating~ Oh, and I also want to thank all the people who read this, of course. Thank you so much.**

**Da'Burgh73:** Thanks for your review; it brightened my day, really, and unfortunately, you're right… There are a lot of yaoi fics and Oc fics; the Devil May Cry section is surrounded by Mary Sues and DantexNero fics, which is a very pitiful thing considering the lack of good DantexLady stories (or of any hetero pairing)… ;A; Oh well...

**Truthfulsoul:** Thank you too for your review. I already corrected that grammatical error you saw in the first chapter and as for the other ones… well, I'll ask my English teacher if she can take a look at the first chapter. I'm glad I have your attention and I'm also glad that you liked the first chapter. Hope you like this one too and thanks~!

**Blackpearly:** DantexLady es una pareja que escasea mucho, muchísimo, y los pocos fics que hay de ellos naufragan en un mar de Yaoi y OCs, algunas de ellas completas Mary sues… Cosa que es bastante triste. Pero cambiando de tema, me alegró que te haya gustado el capitulo y lo poco que lleva de trama, de todos modos~. Cielos, no sabes lo que me costó pensar en una historia que fuese lo suficientemente lógica como para poderla encajar en el ilógico mundo de Devil May Cry, con tantas lagunas temporales y preguntas sin contestar. Pensar en un capitulo y después escribirlo bien es más difícil que intentar traducirlo, aunque esa tarea también es igual de odiosa, a decir verdad. Muchas gracias por tu apoyo.

**As always, all kind of constructive criticism is welcomed and if you see some kind of orthographic error or typographic error, please let me know it. Hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading.**

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 2: Abbaglio**

* * *

The journey to Devil May Cry was silent, too silent for Trish's liking. The sound that the heels of her black leather boots made as she walked and the relentless sound of the falling rain were the only things that could be heard at that time of night, and that was very odd considering that the neighborhood where Dante lived was known as the most dangerous part of the city, so it shouldn't be so quiet and peaceful all of sudden. Damn it, she was starting to miss the Love Planet prostitutes that wandered around with their clients, the teenagers who ran away from home for having a party and the typical junkies who sat on the floor or in the doorway of a random house to drink beers and drug themselves with anything that they could get their hands on. It was a sad fact, but she did.

The lightning brightened her way, since the streetlights seemed to have gone for unknown reasons, and that fact also warned her that the storm would shortly worsen. Trish mentally thanked her demonic condition that prevented her from catching colds as the rain continued to soak her from head to toe during her journey to Dante's place.

Everything seemed normal, regardless of how weird it was to find peace in a place as crowded and marginal as that, but then, her eyes spotted something that immediately caught her attention.

"…?"

At that time, she thought she saw something flickering at the end of the street where she was walking; something like that shouldn't be visible beyond the darkness of the alleyway. Even If her sense of sight was more developed than that of a human, Trish doubted the existence of something human that was as bright as what she had just witnessed moments before. Then, to see what it was, the blonde demoness went to the place where she thought she saw that flashing blue light. …However, other than the occasional crack of thunder brightening the streets, she was unable to glimpse any flicker again. Perhaps it was only her imagination after all, so she ignored it and continued walking without further ado.

Odd.

"I never thought I'd find you so easily…"

…Her plans to continue her way to Devil May Cry were completely destroyed by the sudden male voice that made her stop and look from one side to another, at her surroundings, giving a full turn on her heels in search of the person who had previously spoken to her, but she didn't find him.

"Who's there?" She asked aloud in a tone of annoyance, still looking frantically whomever who was there.

"…I see… So you can hear me but not see me… Interesting, it doesn't happen everyday."

The voice seemed to come from in front of her and sounded thoughtful, but in front of her there was nothing.

"Why don't you show me your face, you arrogant bastard?" replied the demoness while angrily spitting out the words. "Maybe you're so ugly that you're afraid to come out?"

"Oh? Ugly?" The voice that came from nowhere laughed sinisterly. "I think it's a mistake to say such things, dear. Believe me, I'm more handsome than you could even imagine."

Trish rolled her eyes unconsciously, used to doing it every time Dante said something similar…Anyway, this guy didn't seem to say it by narcissism; it seemed more like he was making fun of her, judging by his tone of voice.

"Hmph, I understand, I understand…" She replied, folding her arms as her body was gradually surrounded by electricity. "Then maybe you wouldn't mind to come out here and prove it, hmm?"

"I doubt I have a problem with it, milady." Said again that mocking voice that sounded closer now. "Anyway, I didn't come here to talk to you, you know? I was… How do I put it? Oh, yes… stalking you, and as I said before, I'm not here to have a peaceful chat with you, so I would be happy to do so willingly."

"Well, that's creepy… You say you've been following me all this time?" She cackled. "Oh, well, if you wanted to have a date with me so desperately you could have asked me before I had left the bar."

"Heh, don't build your hopes too much, my dear, because you aren't my type of woman, you see?" He responded with the same mocking tone she used moments earlier.

"Most men would sell their cocks and kill each other just to have a piece of me." She scratched the back of her head. "...I don't know what to think about you now." She added mischievously.

He snorted. "Now compare 'quantity' with 'quality'." The man sounded disgusted. "Dressing like a slut only atracts annoying, pesky flies. Where's the accomplishment in that?"

She laughed. "Are you calling me a whore?"

"Oh, smart little one... You don't fool me. I can see beyond the exterior, and you are disgusting. You obviously are rotten inside. ...You may fool them, but not me. Whores aren't my type."

Trish closed her eyes and displayed a dangerous smirk while intensifying the energy of her magnetic field of electricity.

"Okay, you asked for it..." Said the demoness with a wry laugh. "This round's on the house!"

And then Trish took from the holsters that were strapped to a belt on her leather pants one of her two guns and pointed it forward, where supposedly came the voice of that man from and, by association, where he should be. Suddenly, strange arcane symbols began to appear on the walls and, immediately, they began to glow intensely, giving the alley a dim blue light that illuminated everything, without any exception, swallowing the darkness that characterized it seconds before. It was a magical and a mysterious scenery, but also a strange and a terrifying one, and the mere act of looking directly into the luminescent symbols gave Trish a great headache. If it was for the intense power that they emanated or for the blinding light that they emitted… Well, she didn't know it.

…And among all that unprecedented chaos that seemed to be based on a fantasy and mystery novel, the demoness saw him... Or rather, she was seen by him, actually. In other words, their eyes met, because he was right in front of her, with a cruel and mocking smile on his lips.

"…Y-You…?" She stammered completely stunned as the strength with which she wielded the gun decreased and the power of her magnetic field disappeared.

…It should have been Trish's first meeting with him, but she knew him at a glance. The blonde woman didn't know what to do at the moment she saw him, actually. She simply ran out of words, like that time when she met that kid from Fortuna. The resemblance was undeniable, or at least it was undisputed if she compared him with the person she met long ago…

"Are you sure it's good to just stand there doing nothing…?" He sarcastically said, breaking her train of thoughts. "Well, well… If you think this place is suitable for your cemetery, then very well." He cackled. "I'll praise your spirit and glorify your noble name for wanting to stay here."

The blue magic circles on the walls burst in thousands of shinning crystals and disappeared, making a horrible cracking sound. Instead of the arcane symbols appeared demons of various shapes and sizes, determined to shatter the body of the blonde woman. Unfortunately for them, she reacted faster than they thought and dodged each and every one of the scythes that tried to hurt and pierce her. The boy laughed at the scene.

"Not bad, not bad at all...!" He said from afar with great enthusiasm. Trish responded to that comment by strongly grabbing her gun and reactivating the magnetic field of electricity that had been destroyed when she saw him, too absorbed by the shock. "If it wasn't like this, it wouldn't be interesting!"

"You're the responsible of the murders and the great demonic activity in this city, right?"

"Maybe, who knows?" He said greatly amused, approaching her in a slow but decided pace. "In this world the possibilities are endless, everything is possible. Maybe it's me, perhaps someone else… perhaps it's even someone that you could never imagine."

Trish frowned before showing him a wry and twisted smile.

"Do not try to sound like a poet and play with my mind, because I doubt you will come out of it well." She said as she watched him getting closer and closer to her after pronouncing the last words. The demons, which until then remained motionless, now followed him as if they were puppets of his mercy, as if they hadn't minds of their own.

In a short time he managed to be face to face with her, and it was then when Trish was able to see more clearly his face, illuminated by the intense blue light that came out from nowhere, but there wasn't anything special in his facial appearance, anyway: he had greyish blue eyes, slicked down black hair that reached to his neck (not too long, not too short) and his skin was dirty because of the rain and God knows what else. He wouldn't be a very big deal if it wasn't for his great resemblance with Dante.

"I won't come out of it well, you say…" He snapped with that thick Italian accent of his without even flinching as he felt the cold gun barrel on his chest. "Heh, how funny... Do you mind showing me how bad could I end, _puttana arrogante_?"

She, in response, smiled even more, and almost managed to match the shape of his infamous smirk.

"Do you really want to know?" She asked mischievously, and his face twisted with brutality.

"I'll take the risk."

…And she shot, without hesitation, but the bullet didn't struck against the body of the black haired boy, but against the body of one of the demons behind him that couldn't see Trish's counterattack, because even before that bullet could hit him, Angelo had already teleported behind Trish's back. Then, with a fleeting wave of his right hand, a blue luminescent crystal-like sword appeared and he instantly caught it in mid-air and descended it…

However, even before that sword could decapitate Trish, unbelievably, the demoness had swung her gun behind her while creating with her free hand a devastating lightning bolt that fulminated various demons that, enervated by the blood shedding of his companion, were ready to pounce and mutilate her mercilessly. The barrel remained pointing behind her back, right at Angelo's chest…

Without turning around, her gun pointing at him, Trish grinned.

"…Non sta male…" Whispered the boy while eyeing with a gesture of self-sufficiency the gun of the smiling woman. "…Per a una puttana come tu…"

"I told you that you wouldn't come out of it well. I told you, didn't I?"

She fired again and, predictably, failed again. As she turned around to see if he had teleported somewhere close to her back to attack her by surprise, the remaining demons ran towards her, but Trish quickly became aware of it, turning as fast as possible to "attend" to them. Her sixth sense was truly a blessing. While she tore them apart by using electricity spells and shots from her black gun, the demoness could see that their movements were as fast and as precise as those of their master, who had suddenly disappeared after that. They didn't stop even as the ground was soaked by the rain that now fell more heavily, like the lighting that sounded closer and closer as the battle continued. …But that wasn't because of the dreadful weather, but because of her, since she was so surrounded by so many demons that she eventually had to increase her powers to the point where she had to summon lightning strikes from the sky to kill a few demons at once. Still, it didn't seem to be enough with the amount of demons coming out from the gates from the walls, which at first glance seemed only simple symbols of witchcraft to her. Certainly, that would have been a deadly trap for a human but, luckily, Trish wasn't one.

…The butchery continued its course while the blood stained the transparent water of the puddles in red. It seemed like an endless task but, fortunately, there was a point when no more demons appeared from the gates, which lost their glowing blue color that served as an artificial light to illuminate the darkened alley. …Although that would have been good news, Trish didn't seem to be very happy about that, and she didn't like one bit the fact that she could hear the laughter of that boy, who disappeared and left her alone to fight against the demons, rumbling through the streets. At the moment when she heard him laugh, she turned her head backwards, and it was then when she could certainly affirm that she had been fooled, because right behind her, from the direction that the sun had supposedly sunk, she felt the impossible rays of sunlight.

In fact, it wasn't the sunlight that illuminated her, but the figure of a man who levitated in the air along with what appeared to be hundreds of blue luminescent spears aligned around him and pointing at her in a perfect angle.

…As Trish watched, she knew she was trapped like a mouse in a cage, corned in that narrow street that didn't give her any chance to escape from the spears. Everything was clear now: he had been distracting her with the demons so he could have time to create a scenario in which there couldn't be any kind of escape, and he succeeded. It was a smart move, but also a lousy one, that's for sure. Still, his victory couldn't be disputed.

"This is clearly a checkmate, don't you think?"

"Damn it!"

Her bold expression hadn't faltered once before now, but now twisted for the first time. And faster than Trish could click her tongue, Angelo released the spears.

"The game is over, _mia cara_! Nice knowing ya!"

"uuuoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

…And finally, the struggle to death between the two of them was resolved. The spears pierced the ground, and then came the sound of thunder and the sound of the falling rain and wind.

She was trapped, she certainly was, but none of the spears had pierced her body. You could say she was lucky, but she knew that "luck" wasn't the right word to describe what had happened, because she had the feeling that everything was planned to be that way. She could feel the spears stuck on the ground at a few inches away from her body, preventing any escape; she could feel the gaze of thousands of eyes watching her carefully; she could feel a sharp pain on the left side of her body, caused by, probably, some broken rib, and she could also feel a great weight on top of her that prevented her from moving from her place, perhaps the causer of the fracture in her rib cage. Slowly, she opened her eyes and once she had them open, she looked around. The demoness saw the luminescent spears stuck firmly in the soil, like the bars of a cage, one at each end of her body that lied on the damp ground. Then she saw the demons that disappeared along with the symbols engraved on the walls, looking down on her with their crimson eyes. Finally, Trish looked toward the centre, and was greeted not by those horrifying demonic eyes, but by two of blue. The eyes of that boy, who at that moment was on top of her, grabbing her wrists, also depriving her from escape.

"…You are not who I'm looking for…" He muttered between his teeth, all the fun and arrogance disappeared from his eyes.

And then the boy reluctantly rose from the ground, releasing her wrists and her body away from his. The demoness, once free, rubbed her hands in an attempt to alleviate the pain caused by the strong grip that was exercised by the strong hands of her enemy seconds before, who now was looking down on her with an apathetic expression.

"It's a shame, really..." He commented as he closed his eyes with indifference. "I guess I'll have to find other ways to find her... …" He turned and started to leave, but then suddenly stopped and turned his head, giving one last withering look at Trish. "Do not expect that the next time we meet I will be just as gracious to you as I've been now. You just caught me in a good mood, that's all. If we meet again, I swear I'll make you pay for this, filthy demon." He dictated before disappearing along with the demons in a thick cloud of blue haze.

…Trish was left there alone, confused, lying on the soaked and dirty ground not wanting to get up because she didn't want to reawaken the pain of her possible broken rib. As she watched the pouring rain, the demoness couldn't help but wonder how the hell she managed to get into such a mess without even wanting to. Of course, when her body recovered, she would get up and resume her way to Devil May Cry, now with even more reasons to do so.

* * *

It was an awful day. Even if at that time it wasn't raining, Dante could affirm that, very soon, it would start raining again and perhaps in abundance. The dark hue of the sky and the black clouds that decorated it were the irrefutable proof of it, anyway.

While walking to his destination, looking around curiously and walking cautiously to not get lost again among all the streets, the half demon couldn't help but think that this woman could pay them with a great sum of money. Otherwise, Dante wouldn't be able to explain how could she live in that part of the city, considered the most luxurious among them. In fact, that hotbed of demons and drunkards that he, Lady and Trish called home could not be compared with that: all the streets that he had crossed were full of huge beautiful houses that were surely expensive, the floor of the streets was spotless and the lawn looked perfectly manicured, adorned by some shrubs of roses of different colors. It was much too wonderful.

…However, his neighborhood was too full of mercenaries, drunkards, syringes, demons and bloodshot eyes. It wasn't a nice and safe place at all, more like a poor and dangerous one, and for those reasons, trying to compare his neighborhood with this one was like comparing the pyramid of Keops with a dog turd. Nevertheless, Dante liked it to be this way, because if it was different, then he wouldn't even get half of the jobs he gets now in the suburbs where he lived.

When he finally arrived at the address that was written in the photo, he caught a glimpse of the athletic figure of Lady leaning against the wall of the mansion, with a face that mingled weariness and impatience, a lot of impatience... And as expected, her facial features changed radically as soon as her eyes met with his.

"Where the fuck have you been all this time?" She angrily shouted.

_Heh… it seems like the weather it's not the only thing that's in a bad mood…_ He thought to himself.

"I'm glad to see you too, babe." He finally sighed in a way of greeting with a half smile on his lips, amused by her violent temperament.

"I've been waiting for you for half an hour, you stupid jerk! Hell, if I had known better I would have come here alone, I would have taken all the money for myself and I would also have forgotten about you!"

_And how many times have you done that already?_ Dante mentally mused to himself again. He had to bite his tongue to not say that aloud and not worsen her mood, but the truth was that it was quite tempting to piss her off and see how her face reddened with anger. To his eyes, she looked rather cute when her cheeks caught that reddish tone of color.

"Sometimes I wonder why the fuck I still talk to you!"

"Ok, ok…!" Said the half demon while raising his hands in defeat as he smiled arrogantly at her. "I swear that next time I won't be late for our date, yes? Don't yell at me."

"This is not a date, you moron!"

He laid his hand on his chest and made a dramatic pose, faking a startled gasp. "…That one hurt my ego…"

Lady decided to ignore that because if she didn't, she was sure she would have killed him right there, and it would be a waste if she stained the beautiful lobby of the luxurious mansion with blood.

Without further ado, the brunette went to the front door with a sharp spin and rang the bell while Dante stood behind her, watching her with amusement.

…They didn't make her wait for too long, thankfully. Coming out from inside the house, opening the door slowly, a blonde adult female with wavy hair appeared. Her dress matched perfectly with the house, between classic and modern: She was wearing a stylish and elegant white shirt with some ruffles, a rose that adorned the left side of her chest, a long dark skirt and a black ribbon that she used as a headband.

She smiled when her eyes locked on Lady, recognizing her instantly. Then, her glance focused on Dante, who was still too concentrated in Lady's legs to realize that she was even there.

"Well, well… You must to be Dante, aren't you?" The woman approached the half demon with firm and determined steps, waking him from his trance with her hoarse voice. Then, she greeted him with a cordial bow. "Your lady friend," she looked at Lady " talked a lot about you."

"Heh… I'm not surprised at all; she loves me too much…" He said, earning a look of contempt and hatred from Lady, who behaved herself because she didn't want to make a scene in front of their customer's face.

"This is not a good place to discuss this kind of business." Stated the blonde woman with a smile, completely ignoring the scene between the two hunters as she waved her hands to let them know that they had to follow her. "Please, come inside."

And so they did. The interior was slightly different compared to modern façade that the building showed from the outside. The European style reminded Dante of the typical haunted houses that have often been portrayed in horror movies, but at least this had a more home-like appearance, unlike the gloomy atmosphere that those movies portrayed.

While their client walked through the halls of the house, the two hunters stopped in their tracks, observing the numerous framed paintings on the walls that portrayed fabulous scenes of dragons, magic battles, fantastical places and elegant portraits of women in Victorian dresses. One in particular caught the half demon's attention: the one of a boy wearing a black coat, facing a massive clock tower on a rainy day.

Dante whistled.

"Not bad…" Said the silver-haired man as he put his hands over his chest, watching the huge canvas painting.

"They are pretty good" said Lady, "looking at them makes you think they are actually real. It's outstanding."

"Oh?" He smiled slyly and turned his head to look at her. "I didn't take you as a lover of art, Lady." He said sarcastically.

"…Yes, Valeria's paintings are unique. They reflect more than her essence as an artist." Interrupted a voice that came from the main hallway. The figure of a middle-aged man with black disheveled hair appeared while making a polite bow for the two guests. "My name is Ugo, and I am the butler of the residence." He bowed once again, this time to the half demon. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Dante." He said politely.

"…Well…" He scratched his neck uncomfortably. That guy had something strange going on that he didn't like, but he couldn't say exactly what was bothering him. "…It seems that I'm famous in this house." He said with a frown.

"It's not uncommon to feel like a celebrity here, since we hardly ever have guests at home." Chuckled the butler, now looking to the tenant of the mansion. "It's something special that Miss Valeria invites someone here, and it's even more special if those guests are mercenaries. She is slightly reserved for these kind of things."

The answer of the blonde was a small cackle.

"Maybe you're right, I should invite people more often… Don't you think, Ugo?"

"Maybe, why not? The chores are not problems if we have enough people working, and I think we are more than enough in this house." Said the butler with a small chuckle. "Now, per favore, over here." He made a gesture with his hand to make them follow him down the hall. Valeria led the way, followed by Dante and Lady, who walked behind her.

The main dining room was on the back of the house, in a large space lit by large windows, most of them with brightly colored mosaics in the top of the frames. The polished tiles reflected perfectly the image of the newcomers and everything else in the room. In the centre there was a large family-sized rectangular table with padded chairs accommodated around it. As her butler left the room quietly, Valeria sat in one of the chairs and waited for the two hunters to do the same.

"I guess you'll have a small idea of the current situation of the city, right?" She asked.

Lady, sitting in a chair in front of the blonde woman, like Dante, was the first that replied her.

"The demonic activity is at its highest levels this year, which has produced a lot of mortal accidents." She explained monotonically with an air of professional negotiator. "We, unlike the other hunters in the city, can handle the case efficiently, without failing. Of course that requires a plus that-"

"Wait, wait, wait… _we_?" Interrupted the half demon while raising one of his eyebrows skeptically and putting special emphasis on 'we'.

"Didn't you tell me that you would only accept the job if I came with you?" asked the brunette, looking defiant. The demon hunter stared her for a while, but he finally gave up.

"…True…" He admitted. "I guess you can join, it's not like you have better things to do, anyway."

Lady crossed her arms and gave a guttural growl that could be interpreted as the prologue to his immediate castration at the hands of her annoyed companion. Oh, well…

The blonde-haired woman, on the other hand, laughed at the scene as she leaned further into her seat.

"My, my, you two really are close…" She said with a knowing smile.

This time it was Dante who laughed heartily while Lady gave him a murderous look from her seat.

"Are you fucking kidding me? She doesn't even let me go near her! I'm not that lucky." He said while laughing with a grin on his lips.

…That comment was replied with a strong stamp on his foot by the heel of Lady's brown boot, which managed to dig deeply into the fabric of his black shoes and make him scream in pain.

"Oh, fuck! You bitch!"

"Yes, yes…" Valeria cackled. "Both of you are certainly very close."

"And what's supposed to be our mission?" Asked the brunette in an attempt to change the subject, totally ignoring the curses of the half demon who sat by her side.

"It's pretty simple, really…" She crossed her legs and arms in preparation for explanation. "You know, my daughter was all that I had in my life, the most precious thing I've ever had. When I heard that demons had killed her, I didn't know what to do… Even now I'm not strong enough to communicate this to my relatives in Italy." She sighed and rose from her chair, turning toward the back of the room, searching for something. After looking inside the drawers of a wooden desk, Valeria returned to them with lots of brown folders and other documents under her arm. "I have ascertained for certain that savage demons are the ones who are behind this, but I also think that there's a demon stronger than them that is able to control them all." Then, she sat back in her chair and gave the documents to Lady. "I want you to find it and kill it, and put an end to this endless invasion of demons in the city. …And if it isn't too much to ask, I would like that once you have done your job, that once you have killed that demon, you bring me some proof that this has been made, that the demon has been killed. Just to be sure."

Dante frowned at her request. She wanted them to bring her something that would ensure the death of the demon? What, exactly? An arm? A leg? Well, he wasn't the most indicated to judge anyone, because it seemed that this woman spoke and acted like that because of the tremendous anger and pain caused by the loss of a loved one, but he had to admit that it was a little… well, creepy. Anyway, if she paid them well, then, it wouldn't matter how preposterous was her request.

"That's fine, we'll do it, I understand." Replied Lady, the only one of the two of them that negotiated with Valeria to get the job. "…But first we must know what will be the payment for the job. You know, we are more accustomed to complete missions that are more… dangerous than the rest, so a plus for dangerousness would be nice, don't you think?"

Just what he thought.

"Oh, I know, I know… I see you're not someone stupid that can be easily fooled, eh?" She let out a small giggle as she picked up from a folder a white paper, and thereafter, she got up to get something to write. "There is no problem with it, the money will not be an obstacle in all this, or at least that's what I think." She sat in the chair once again when she found what she wanted. Then, she began to write on the paper. It didn't take her too long to write the cipher of their payment, so when she finished, she handed the paper to Lady so she could read what was written in there. "I hope this is enough for two hunters as prestigious as you…"

Lady's eyes widened when she read what was written there. She simply didn't believe it. Dante, surprised by the facial expression of his companion, craned his neck to see what surprised her so much, and as expected, his eyes also widened in shock when he saw the great sum of money that Valeria wanted to pay them for the job. Slowly, the two took off their eyes from the paper and then exchanged glances.

* * *

"Trying to find the demon that is causing all this, among so many in the city, will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I'm still wondering why we're doing this shit."

"A job is a job, especially if the payment is as delicious as the one she offered us." replied the brunette huntress while trying to keep up the pace of the silver haired hunter, with the research papers that were given to her by Valeria under her arm.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know; it is our chance, we will never be hungry again" He said with that smile of self-sufficiency and arrogance that unnerved Lady to the point of absurd, "but it's still complicated. Damn it, we are demon hunters, not agents from the CSI! She's lucky I am nice."

"And the money didn't have anything to do with it, eh?"

"...It just helped narrow down the decision."

Lady sighed and nodded, agreeing with his thoughts about the job… well, at least partially. He was right about the money thing, since a job as tedious as that, to seek and kill the demon that is the responsible of the deaths and the demonic activity in the city, needed to be highly paid. Fortunately, Valeria Cafarelli paid them well, too damn well…The truth was that the brunette huntress had never seen so many zeros together in her entire life, and the same went for Dante. With certainly, they would never be hungry again and maybe, just maybe, Dante could pay her the money he owed her using the payment of the job… But of course, that would be too much to ask.

…It would be too miraculous.

"Look on the bright side." She showed him the great sheaf of papers that she was carrying, the research material for the case. "She has even left us the homework, so we won't have to waste our time to look for more clues and that kind of thing."

The half demon stopped abruptly, causing Lady to also stop in her tracks. Then, he stared at it for several seconds with a look of bewilderment and disbelief…

"All that?" He finally asked incredulously, pointing his finger accusingly at the papers.

Typical reaction of Dante. She should have known better…

"Forget it…" She said rolling her eyes. "I'll do the paperwork, it's not like you have the patience to do such things, anyway, and someone has to do it."

Dante couldn't help but sigh, relieved after hearing the words of the demon huntress while resuming his way to go home, and she did that as well. After that, they fell silent for some time, until they eventually reached a crossroads. Then, Lady stepped ahead of Dante and positioned herself in the right direction, whose path was the one that she had to take to go home, if the apartment where she lived could be considered that.

Before continuing, Lady turned her head to look at Dante.

"I'll take this path. Goodbye."

He smiled and winked at her.

"See you again, Lady."

…And with one last exasperated sigh, Lady took the right road, as she said, while Dante took the left path.

His journey to Devil May Cry was silent, too silent, with a lot of thoughts crossing his mind. Although no one would believe it, the hunter used to be a little, just a little, reflective when he wanted. There were times when he just...well, thought about things, and at that time he couldn't get off from his head those nostalgic thoughts about his family, about what might happen in the future…or about Lady even, but that, as always, lasted until he snapped out from his trance and told himself that that emo shit wasn't his style. Of course it wasn't.

Eventually, he entered within a complex area of alleys, a shortcut to Devil May Cry. He knew it quite well, so he didn't hesitate when he had to take one way or another, and he also didn't take too long to get out from there. He turned right; then, he kept walking forward and, again, turned right. Then he turned left and finally turned right, getting out from there, standing practically in front of his place. He walked toward the door and opened it with decision, throwing away his red coat that miraculously fell on the couch. …Apparently, he was so distracted that he didn't realize that there was someone besides him inside his _house_, but eventually, when he looked at his desk, where the grease stained pizza box still remained next to the rum bottles piled on the floor, he could see her, and he instantly recognized her. He smiled.

"Heh… Long time no see you, Trish. Certainly, I never thought that this would be the day when I would see you again."

* * *

**A/N: Ok, chapter three will be here very soon, since it's alredy written and the only thing I have to do is translate it, but I first have to finish chapter four. If I see that I'm delaying too much, then I will translate it as fast as I can and update this fic.**

**By the way, "Abbaglio" means "Blunder" in English, and it's a very bad move in chess. "Puttana arrogante" means "arrogant bitch","mia cara" means "my dear" and, if I'm not mistaken, "Non sta male per a una puttana come tu" means "Not bad for a bitch like you." I'm not entirely sure if that's well written, since my knowledge of Italian is very close to zero, unfortunately ;A; but oh well... I'm trying all my best to learn that language too.**


	3. Tempo

**A/N: To all those who have left a review, thank you, really, and I also want to thank to the other people who had read this fic, had put it on alert, etc, etc… Thank you all~**

**Blackpearly:** Me alegra que te haya gustado el capitulo, de veras, y aquí tienes otra ración de DxL en la que he intentado ser lo más explicita posible (pero sin pasarme) puesto que en los próximos capítulos las interacciones de esta pareja se reducirán a simples menciones y cosas de ese estilo… dicho de otra manera, el DxL será más implícito, mucho más implícito comparado con lo que ya se ha visto hasta ahora, el desarrollo de los personajes y la trama me lo impide, desgraciadamente… con todo eso dicho, espero que disfrutes este capitulo tanto como el anterior~.

**Da'Burgh73:** You flatter me a lot, because I thought that chapter two lacked of descriptions and that kind of things. Thank you very much, really, and sorry for the grammatical errors ;A;.

**RimZtheNonForgiveR:** Thanks for your review and thanks for showing interest in this story. Here's the update, hope you enjoy it~!

**Truthfulsoul:** He is... Well. Angelo is a peculiar and a bit problematic person, as you have seen, and he is one of the main mysteries of the plot. Who is Angelo and why is he a sort of reminder of Dante? You will find out very soon, but not yet… *evil writer mode: on*. I'm glad that you liked the scene between him and Trish, anyway, and I've got to tell you that if you enjoyed that scene, you would like to know that there will be much more brutal fights… I hope.

**So, without further ado, here's chapter three; hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading~**

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 3: Tempo**

* * *

"Fancy to see you here again, Trish…" He said as he walked towards his desk, where she sat quietly. "I haven't heard from you since…How long? Two, three months?"

"Actually, I was gone for only a month." She corrected him with a smile of self-sufficiency.

"Only one? It seemed like an eternity for me…"

Trish got up from Dante's filthy desk and took off the sunglasses she was wearing, putting them inside the pocket of her tight black leather trousers. Meanwhile, Dante sat on his red chair, picking up one of the many magazines that were scattered on the wooden furniture in the process.

"It seems you haven't had many jobs, eh?"

"Actually, no," She put her hands on her hips, sighing. "The demon hunting business is pretty shitty in the other places of this country, at least when you compare them with this city, so that's why I'm here; because I heard that the demonic activity has reached historic highs."

"Yeah, that's right, that's right..." He chuckled as his eyes remained fixed on the pages of his old magazine. "Can you say it just by taking a look at your surroundings?"

…Actually, she didn't even need to take a look at her surrounding to say if it was true or if it wasn't; After all, it wasn't her first time in Devil May Cry, so she knew that the walls of his office were decorated with the heads of the demons that he had killed, as if they were vulgar trophies. Now that the business was running so well in the city, she didn't doubt that the decoration had changed a bit and now it was more… actual, so to speak.

"Then I guess from what you're telling me that these days you have been busier than usual, right?"

"Well, you could say that." He suddenly closed the magazine and put his feet over the desk. "With this entire disturbance of demonic activity in the city, an 'aristocratic' woman managed to get in contact with Lady and me. She was pissed off at the demons that killed her daughter and many other citizens, so now we both have to find the demon responsible of all that mess if we want to get paid. Very beautiful."

"Oh?" She smiled knowingly. "Then I guess I really missed a lot of things in these past few months ...It's very odd that the two of you work together just like that...By the way, didn't you hate Lady's jobs? You're always bitching about how crappy they are, now that I think about it." Actually, she didn't give a shit about her partner's sex life; if she showed interest in that thing was with the sole purpose of annoying him… and because she was bored.

"Hey, hey, don't get too excited, you haven't missed anything. Seriously, do you really think I would be here, reading a magazine and scratching my balls if something between us had happened?"

"…True…"

"Well, that's it." He concluded with a shrug. "Did you have anything important to tell me, anyway? It's very uncommon to see you dropping by here so suddenly and without even calling... And what about that face of yours? It seems like you've seen a ghost or something worse...Very out of character, don't you think?"

And then, Trish's smile slowly faded until her face regained the seriousness that it originally had when she came in there. She remembered why she had come there, she remembered what had happened last night with that mysterious man and, moreover, she also remembered what Dante had said seconds before about his new job.

"…Now…" She began. "I know something you might be interested in."

"…And that would be…?"

"You told me that Lady got a job that was connected with the murderers that, presumably, were carried out by demons, right?" When Dante nodded, the demoness resumed her talking. "I think I have a vague idea about who may be the demon you're looking for, the one who commands all the other demons to kill people."

* * *

With a deep sigh of exhaustion, the brunette got up from her seat and then pulled back the curtains of the only window that lit up the living room of her small apartment. She really needed a break after having checked the vast majority of the documents from the job that now were stacked in a pile on a wooden table in the middle of the living room, but if she did such a thing, she would lose a very valuable time that could be used to continue searching for clues to finish the job as soon as possible.

Before returning back to work, Lady gave a last look at the landscape of the city that could be seen thought the window. Maybe the rain had died down a tiny bit since the previous night, but it didn't look like the thick rain-clouds were planning to let any trace of the morning sun get by.

"As expected, it doesn't seem that it will stop today…"

She sat again in front of the pile of papers and another sigh escaped from her lips. As she kept reading them, she had the feeling that she would never find anything of value from the documents, and the worst thing of all was that she hadn't even read half of them. Of course, surely, Dante would be totally relaxed, lying on the chair of his dirty office, his legs over that messy desk of his, reading a porn magazine or taking a nap while she had to do the dirty work. Lady had expected this, anyway; it was always like that. It was typical. Dante was the gunslinger, the arrogant bastard who preferred the action and acted without thinking. She, instead, was the crafty one, the intelligent woman that thought all the moves she had to make if she wanted things to go right. In other words, he was the dumb one and she was the smart one; he was the one who killed and acted and she was the one who had to think of the consequences. That's how things worked between them, and now, in this new job, she had to think where that demon could be. Then, Dante would go into action, would kill the demon and destroy half of the city in the process, Valeria eventually would pay them shit, he would become a hero once again and she wouldn't see anything of the large sum of money Dante owes her since… How long? She had gotten bored with it, so she stopped counting.

Shaking her head in an attempt to stop thinking about him and, thereby, avoid an unnecessary state of anger, Lady reluctantly returned to her 'exhaustive analysis' of the documents obtained by the customer who hired them, even though she still thought that all the papers said the same thing over and over again. …Time passed painfully slowly as she turned with extreme boredom the pages of that brown folder, but thank God, the brunette's mind eventually reacted to the information written in one of those papers.

"…B-But what the hell…?" She muttered with a scowl.

She didn't expect to find those names written in there, and it was because of that fact that Lady took the paper from the table and glanced at it just to make sure she had read it well. As she read and reread the document, her face looked more and more troubled, reflecting the confusion she felt at that moment.

…Finally, she realized that everything written in there was too exact to be just a simple coincidence. It was, definitely, suspicious.

An annoyed sigh escaped from her lips as she left the paper on the table. Her face was still somewhat thoughtful.

"Love Planet, the motels of the streets from the south part of the city…" She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, watching from afar the white paper with a confused expression. "Aren't those places too close to Devil May Cry…?"

…There was a deathly silence in the room; not even her breathing could be heard. That was, definitely, something suspicious, there was no doubt, and she had to do something, so she finally rose from her chair and began to search for things through the drawers where she kept an infinite arsenal of weapons worthy of admiration plus their respective ammunition, thus breaking the calmness. She finally understood what she had to do at that moment.

When she was fully armed from head to toe, Lady was ready to leave her apartment to inquire into the matter. …But of course, before she could go out, the brunette remembered that without the paper with the information, she couldn't do anything of benefit.

* * *

There were no more doubts. Thanks to what had happened last night, Angelo discovered who the woman was that he had to seek and find. Of course, Valeria knew nothing about his blunder, and it was better that way; he didn't want to sink his reputation in the order, anyway.

The moist air that flowed heavily that day was freezing his face, causing the tip of his nose and cheeks to have a more reddish tonality produced by the cold and, on top of that, his eyes watered every time he blinked. It was problematic and unnerving, but it didn't stop him from keeping on walking through the streets of the city on his way to the next stage.

…Moreover, not even the small droplets of rain that began to gradually fall from the sky were able to stop him, and neither they bothered him, but that wasn't due to his willpower or his stubbornness, no. Actually, he liked rain, and he liked it for multiple reasons: The main and most important was the fact that rain washed the traces of blood that remained on him when he was on an assassination mission, and as lately a lot of those kind of missions were entrusted at him, he was grateful for the presence of that atmospheric phenomenon with all his heart, even if he ended with hypothermia or even if he ended catching a cold. Another reason was the soothing sound that the water made when it fell to the ground, but that often had 'negative effects' on him: it made him wonder if he would get his 'reward' after all those horrible things he had done and kept doing… Valeria promised him he would have 'it' back very soon if he helped her, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her…

He shook his head, clicked his tongue and closed his eyes tightly; he had let his feelings invade his mind again, and it really wasn't the time to get sentimental. Not when he was so near to his destination, not when the chessboard was in his favor…

* * *

Nothing, nothing and nothing. The brunette demon huntress frowned and put her hands on her hips, visibly upset because she went to the alley that led to that bar next to Devil May Cry but found nothing; then, she visited the direction of various motels that were written in that document, but she still didn't find any conclusive evidence, and later, she went to the Love Planet and she still didn't have anything to hold on to. …So, in other words, Lady went from place to place, following the directions written in the paper that remained inside the pocket of her white shorts, but found absolutely nothing. While recalling all her odyssey through the streets of the city, the brunette had the annoying feeling that she had lost the entire afternoon looking for evidences in the wrong places and, basically, that was what made her grumpy and pissed off. However, no matter how frustrated and angry she was, the huntress had decided that she would end this 'expedition' completely, because after all, she only had to visit one last place, and since she had made the trip up there on foot because her motorbike was being repaired, she wasn't going to give up so easily. If she found something of value in there, everything would have worth it; if not, at least she would have satisfied her curiosity.

Then, she looked at the cloudy sky, getting a glimpse of the silhouette of the ruins of the infamous tower before fully entering. She thought it was very weird that someone had the guts of going inside the place, knowing all the twisted stories and legends concerning the ruins of the city, but what was weirder was the fact that this person was found dismembered in there not long ago. Perhaps the victim was lured there by demons, but it would still sound strange.

Walking through the dust and the remains of the houses that had been demolished because of the raising of the Temen Ni Gru, the huntress finally arrived at the centre of the ruins. She could still see the traces of blood of the murdered person. Lady scowled, but it wasn't because of the disgusting sight of the blood-stained floor, since she had seen worse than that; it was because she was in front of that place again, in front of that demonic tower, responsible of the deaths of lots and lots of people. Seriously, of all places in town, why had the demons have to kill someone there?

Shaking her head in an attempt to forget her paranoia and also her memories concerning that place, Lady made her way towards the corner where the victim's blood still remained, etched in the ground. Once there, the huntress carefully looked around, searching for something that might provide her more information than she already had. Fortunately for her, luck was now running in her favor.

"…?"

It was hidden under the dust and rubble, but the huntress quickly got glimpse of it. She couldn't exactly tell what it was, but she could deduce that it probably was some kind of package or something like that. She moved closer, wanting to know what the hell that thing was, that was hidden among the debris of the ruins. Once she was there, she bent down, ignoring the dirty floor, and moved the dust away with a quick gesture of her right hand, instantly afterwards, her eyes widened, reflecting the horror she felt at that time.

…It was an eye. Yes, an eye, an eye that, certainly, wasn't human and that was embedded in the ground, moving its pupils restlessly from place to place in an attempt to track down whoever who was the person who had unearthed it.

Logically, in an instinctive reflex, Lady's hand moved away from it and she got up from the ground with astonishing speed.

"Holy fucking shit!" She exclaimed while backing up against a wall, her hands ready to draw out her guns. "Seriously, I did NOT see that coming…!"

Ok, she had seen bigger and uglier demons than that, and she had also seen more atrocious sceneries than that… But still, witnessing how an eye embedded in the ground moved frantically as if it was a normal thing was priceless; but the worst thing of all that was that she had touched it. It was bizarre, to say the least, but it wasn't anything special, actually, because it didn't attack her and it only served as a signal for Lady to draw out her weapons, mainly because such a thing couldn't be human, that was for sure.

Then, after Lady recoiled her position, that demonic eye focused its gaze towards her, immediately locating her. …Great, just great.

"Found you~" Said a demonic male voice from nowhere, breaking her train of thoughts and the deadly silence of that place.

"What the-?"

"Well, now that you're here, let's let the party begin," He chuckled. "Scream as much as you can!"

And after that, the voice disappeared, and that creepy demonic eye did it as well, which Lady thanked with all her heart. The silence returned to the ruins but, unfortunately, it didn't last for too long… A guttural, inhuman growl echoed among the ruined streets of the city, and the ground trembled before her feet, forming a huge, yawning gap in the dusty ground of that place. Lady turned backwards as she began to hear strange noises, and with great agility, she ran to the location where the growls came from, where that hole in the ground had formed. She didn't have to be a genius to deduce that something was wrong and that she would be surely attacked by something that shouldn't be in the human world. …Oh, God bless her woman's intuition, because she wasn't wrong at all. From the inside of that massive hole, a monstrous Golem made of white stone showed itself, so tall and big that she had to look up to see all of it. It even obscured the silhouette of the majestic demonic tower, the Temen Ni Gru.

"…So a savage demon is responsible for all of this mess, hmm?" She said wryly to herself, remembering Valeria's words.

The great pile of stone raised one of his strong arms with the intention of crushing the demon huntress who wanted to confront him. Instantly, Lady fell to the ground, dodging that strong punch by a sheer miracle. Then, she used that moment of weakness to begin to riddle the demon with bullets by using two of her guns, unfortunately the bullets bounced off the surface of his chest which was made of rock. She didn't even tickle him, and that made her patience run out, since she kept shooting at him but it didn't affect him. Besides, she couldn't waste more ammunition; she didn't have too much money left. So, she put her guns back in their respective holsters, took her rocket launcher and started firing missiles, focusing on his legs.

Apparently, that tactic worked, because the big, scary demon was letting out inhuman screams of pain every time the brunette shot him with Kalina Ann. At least, it seemed it hurt him. However, the pain also made him more violent, and the punches that were aimed at her were much more frequent and brutal. More than once during the battle, the small woman had to roll on the floor and stop her attacks if she didn't want to become the dinner of that Golem. It was problematic and unnerving, but after what it seemed like an eternity, she finally managed to break both of his legs, making him fall to the ground, his legs turning into nothing but rubble. He didn't move anymore.

Lady sighed with relief, looking triumphantly at the moribund body of the demon that had tried to kill her moments ago. Now, at least, she knew for certain that the originator of that mess wasn't a savage demon, as Valeria had said… So without further ado, the huntress placed her rocket launcher on the belt of her back and, giving one last look at the demon, she began to walk away from there.

…A shame, though, her wish of leaving the ruins wasn't granted…

Before she could make more than two steps, the brunette felt a sharp pain in her left ankle, which instantly made her scream in agony. Naturally, Lady's defense barriers reactivated and she started to panic. Quickly, she turned her head backwards to see what the hell was happening, and then she saw it. She understood.

She hadn't finished.

The great beast made of stone, which was still alive and stretched on the ground, had caught her by the ankle and didn't let her move. She couldn't react in time and grab her guns, unfortunately, because before she could do that, the demon grabbed her tightly and lifted her seven or eight meters up from the ground just to let her go moments later, letting her fall from those dizzying heights.

The huntress landed on the floor in an awkward position, her body aching from the fall. She was certain that she had a broken arm, and she also knew she had an injured ankle… In other words, she was unable to move, and the only thing she could do at that moment was lay there, motionless, waiting for her final demise. …That feeling, the inability of not being able to do anything and feel helpless, made her feel sick and angry at the same time.

Clearly, the Golem saw his opportunity, he realized that his opponent was too helpless and moribund to even try to attack him or escape from there. So, he made a guttural growl that could be interpreted as a song of victory. Then, he raised his fist up and, finally, he descended it with the intention of ending Lady's life. She only shut her eyes closed.

…But nothing happened. Lady was still waiting for the demon's final punch, the definitive punch that would end her life, but it didn't matter how much time she waited and waited for it… It never came.

She opened her eyes with a mixture of fear and curiosity, and when she had them open, she watched in surprise how the Golem's heart had been pierced by two luminescent spears. The demon also seemed to be surprised, since he bent his head slightly to see the injured area. He certainly didn't see that coming. Once he registered that he was seriously hurt, he began to scream in agony as more and more blood dripped out from his body and stained the floor of the ruins, turning that area in a pool of blood where, unfortunately, Lady couldn't avoid getting stained of that viscous crimson liquid.

With a loud roar, the demon eventually fell to the ground and died, but curiously, he didn't turn to dust like the other hellish creatures she had fought against did, and the spears still remained in the same place. …Strange, very strange. Lady carefully observed the glowing blue lances, the most striking things of the scene, because the blood and the remains of the Golem, although they may be grotesque for a normal person, were normal things for her. Instead, those things that had pierced the demon's heart… weren't normal at all, and it wasn't just because they appeared from nowhere, no. The material they were made of was also a strange thing… They seemed to be very fragile, like crystal, but something that had appeared from nowhere and was able to pierce a demon made of stone couldn't possibly be made of crystal, right? It was just common sense that those spears weren't human, no matter how brittle they seemed, because something that appeared from nowhere and was able to kill a demon of five meters high couldn't be human, of course.

And growling dissatisfied, with those thoughts still running through her head, Lady got up carefully because she didn't want to reawaken the pain of her ankle and, especially, the terrible discomfort of her broken arm that still remained in an awkward position. When she managed to stand up again, she looked at her surroundings, but she didn't find anything suspicious. Then, Lady looked towards the centre, where the Golem's body remained pinned against the floor, pierced by the spears. She frowned. Everything was quiet… too quiet…

…As she kept looking at the two divine spears that fell from the sky and pierced the demon, the entire world grew suddenly dull, and slowed to a halt. She wasn't an exception, of course. The movements of her chest when she breathed, the wind and even the sound… Everything stopped as if the scenery had been frozen in the instant a photo was taken, and it didn't only happen in the ruins of the Temen Ni Gru, because outside that place, in the streets of the city, people and machines and clock hands were frozen. With one foot still raised, the people who were walking were still. Scraps of paper dancing in the wind were pinned in midair.

…And in that strange world, frozen by some non-human entity, only a single person moved in the ruins of the demonic tower. He was a man in his late twenties who slowly approached Lady's motionless body. When he found himself in front of the huntress, his gaze dropped, his shoulders lowered and he sighed. …That was all.

In a normal world that probably wouldn't even be taken as a movement, but in this still world, it looked very out of place.

"What the fuck was that for? Why did you do that?" Screamed a voice behind him, visibly upset.

…He turned his head backwards with a calm expression on his face, almost emotionless. …Looks like he wasn't the only one in there…

It was another man, whose face was twisted by the rage he felt at that moment. He was advancing toward them very quickly, contrasting the calmed way of walking of the younger boy. His blond hair didn't move at all despite being in motion, and his eyes, constantly fixed on the gray ones of Angelo, shone in a deep crimson red.

"I should be asking you the same thing." The black haired boy replied. "I thought your army of demons was allied with our order, but I guess I was wrong."

"Like you're one to talk…! Your mistress had played a dirty trick on us; she advanced her move earlier than expected, and now that we were so close to get the woman, you stopped us by killing one of our best servants!"

"Oh, well, I will be damned… Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're the one who broke the rules. Maybe your master doesn't care about her soul and body and only needs her blood, but that doesn't apply to us." He showed him a crooked smirk, making him grit his teeth in anger. "I'll refresh your memory, my friend: if we are screwed, you are screwed, you understand? For now, she is someone we have to protect, for our order's sake, and when we finish with her, you will be able to have fun with her flesh and blood, yes?"

The demon closed his fists tightly in an attempt to contain his anger. How dared he talk to him like that? He was only a sorcerer, a human, he was worse than nothing! Oh, how disgraceful, how horrible… but the worst thing of all that was that he and his mistress were right.

"…But do not worry…" He said again with a tone that denoted twisted amusement while his gray eyes began to show a spark of rejoicing. "I will make it up for you, you see? In exchange, I could take care of a certain burden… What was his name again?" He asked looking confused, laying his forefinger on his lips. "Dante? Dante was?" Angelo chuckled. "Well, that's it. You will not need to worry about him anymore; I'll take care of everything, yes?"

…The blonde's eyes tightened, and they seemed even more frightening than before… But Angelo knew, he knew him well enough to know that his defiance just meant that he was surrendering, that he was considering that offer. …But of course, that arrogant devil wouldn't make it easy for him; he would make a fight of all that, but it wouldn't be a battle between swords or between invocations, no; it would be a battle between two strong personalities, it would be a battle between Angelo, who wore a composed smile, and between the nameless demon, who glared at him intensely.

But finally, after several moments of glaring at each other intensely, the blonde shape shifter desisted and his gaze dropped, making the black haired boy smile victoriously.

"If you ever do that again, if you disobey us, if you go too far… There will be serious consequences…"

When the demon disappeared into a thick cloud of black mist, Angelo sighed, looking at Lady's figure, frozen in time. As he watched her, he couldn't help but wonder what had she done to have a whole horde of demons and 'half-breeds' behind her. A part of him thought that it wasn't fair what he was doing to her, that she didn't deserve it, but it was soon silenced by his common sense, arguing that the damage was done, that he was the one who killed all those people to get her attention, that it was him who had gotten them into that mess, and that it was him who sold them to the highest bidder for mere selfish desires.

…No, it didn't matter to him anymore. Actually, they weren't human anymore, not even her; they were just mere pawns, sacrifices he had to make if he wanted to get his reward, nothing more, nothing less. That's what they were in his eyes right now.

* * *

"So you're telling me…" The half demon started to say with his mouth full of pizza. "…That last night you fought against an Italian prick who opened portals to the underworld and, therefore, he is the responsible party of all the demonic activity of the city?"

"Yeah… something like that…"

"Care to explain it with more details?"

The demoness sighed, but she didn't do such a thing because she was tired of explaining what happened the night before, and because she didn't exactly know how to do it. Certainly, she didn't know much about what was happening, and the encounter with that strange man didn't bring her the necessary information she needed to be able to solve the 'mystery'… But at least, she knew more than enough to be able to formulate a believable theory… well, a half believable theory.

Then, putting her hands on her hips, Trish prepared herself to give her opinion about that certain topic in question. There was no need to re-explain what had happened yesterday, Dante knew it very well. …He was just pretending to look and sound confused.

"There's something odd in all this, if you didn't notice…" She started to walk in circles around the living room of the office, as if it would help her to express herself better. "Everyone says that there are a lot of demons in the city… but did any of these people see a single demon wandering around there?"

Dante scowled in confusion. "Well, now that I think about it…"

"The fact is that there are a lot of demons in the city that, occasionally, kill several people. However, nobody has seen them." The blonde demoness reasoned. "What I'm trying to say is that that boy, the Italian prick, occasionally summons those demons to kill people. In other words, demons aren't the main problem, the main problem is that man, who summons them and uses them to kill." She frowned. "What I'm wondering now is… why would he want to kill those people? What is he looking for? What is his motivation…? …Why would he want to attract so much attention…?"

"Why the hell would we want to know all that?" He interrupted while giving one last bite to his almost finished pizza. "We find him, we kick his ass, we get paid for a job well done and that's it. Simple and precise. Seriously, I don't understand why you're always so complicated."

Trish, of course, was going to reply him, pointing him out that something bigger and more complicated could be happening in the job that he and Lady had accepted previously, but the horrific noise that was taking place out on the streets didn't let her continue. Come to think of it, everything was pretty quiet as they both spoke, but suddenly, at that moment, they began to hear the sounds of sirens in the distance, and that was something very strange because the streets where Dante had established the location of Devil May Cry wasn't a very busy area, actually, and although it was a certainly marginal place, those kind of scandals were very uncommon.

Dante also found it strange, Trish knew it, and she didn't figure it out by his perplexed expression, but by the fact that he had rose from his chair and had left what remained of his pizza inside of the white greasy box. …When was the last time she saw Dante losing his appetite, anyway?

"What the hell is going on here?" He asked immediately.

"Seems like something important has happened."

"It must be a demon. I'm completely sure of it; it can give us more tracks to follow than we already have about what you've told me and, also, if I go there, neither you or Lady would be able to accuse me of being a lazy ass, as you always do."

Trish rolled her eyes. "Well, we better hurry; those cars will not be wandering around here forever." She said as she followed him toward the door, both willing to find out what happened.

* * *

As Dante predicted, the main focus of all that mess was a demon. …All that commotion was caused by a demon, by only one demon. It was odd that this great expectation could be caused by only a single demonic being when, normally, dozens of them were needed to create a scene like this one, but that wasn't what surprised them the most…

The place just wasn't the most appropriate to visit, and it wasn't just because of the atrocious scenario or the smell of blood or the dust that dirtied her black leather boots, but because of the presence of the Temen Ni Gru tower. She felt uncomfortable there, but by grace or disgrace, she wasn't the only one: Trish could see by Dante's face that he didn't like being there, and she doubted that the police officers were having fun in the ruins, either.

"The incident must have been big; it isn't very common to see people inside the ruins of the tower… It doesn't happen everyday…" The half demon said while folding his arms.

"Absolutely."

"God… The Temen Ni Gru… You've gotta have very bad taste if you want to kill someone here…"

"It's a shame we can't inspect it, now that I think about it. They are cordoning the area and I doubt they will be willing to let us enter…"

…And then, there was silence. After Trish's comment, a long awkward silence made its way into their conversation, and it only could be interrupted by the voices of the policemen who wandered around, busy with their things. The two stared at each other as if they were in a contest in which none of them had to blink if they didn't want to be expelled, but they finally gave up and smiled sarcastically, knowing each other's thoughts as perfectly as if they were telepaths.

"So fucking what?" They said in unison.

"Since when has that been a problem?" The demon hunter was the one who spoke first, approaching her with a great aura of bravado.

"So…" Trish began. "Should we sneak in without being noticed or should we do it your way?"

"I don't know, I don't know… Why don't we let the ladies decide?" He said with a burlesque tone while making a gesture of courtesy to Trish.

"Oh, well, then-"

"I knew it was impossible to not find you here after all the fuss that has been formed." A voice interrupted, a voice that Dante instantly recognized.

"Didn't you ever hear that it's rude to interrupt other people's conversations?" The half demon asked with a mocking tone as he turned his face and body to see the person behind him. Trish did the same.

…He was another cop, his uniform affirmed it. He was a fat man around the age of fifty, with gray hair and brown eyes. He seemed to know Dante and Trish.

"Of course, my mother was a very strict and punctilious woman when it came to these kind of things, but I think it's always good to poke my nose into conversations where I'm not needed if you, Dante, are the main focus of said conversation." He said with a wry smile. "…And I also think that I've arrived just in time to prevent you from doing something stupid."

"Ha, ha, ha… Very funny." He said with a sarcastic gesture, even though the police chief was right.

"I'm glad you haven't changed at all during all these years, Dante." The policeman laughed "If you had, I would have shit my pants, really…"

"Thanks?"

"Unfortunately for me, I'm not here to visit, but for 'business matters'. I can't lose time talking with you. These demons are really annoying…"

"What do you know about what happened here, Sinclaire?" The blonde woman asked.

"Apparently, a demon of epic proportions appeared in the centre of the ruins, causing a stir." He said while pointing forward, where the other police officers had cordoned off the area that was swamped in blood. "Fortunately, there were no injuries, but we still have to be cautious, considering what's been happening in the city during the last few months."

"We need to get there." Dante said. "We're the only ones who can find out what's going on and stop it. Moreover, this is not your job, but ours, right? So why don't you leave this to professionals like me, hmm?" He concluded with a shrewd smile.

Sinclaire sighed, knowing that he didn't have any chance of beating Dante in this kind of game. After a few seconds of silence, the chief desisted.

"…Shut your mouth, try to look important and follow me." He dictated before heading toward the centre, where the dusty remains of the demon should be.

Trish and Dante didn't take too long to follow him, and they did everything he told them to do: they closed their mouths and tried to look important. Eventually, they reached the cordoned area, and with Sinclaire's permission, they entered inside, but when they were in there, neither of them expected to see such an atrocious scenario…

…The blood was scattered everywhere, and they could even slip if they weren't careful. There were a lot of used bullets on the ground, too, and in the centre of that area laid the moribund body of the demon that had appeared in the Temen Ni Gru and had caused all that mess. Strangely, the demon didn't turn to dust; his entire colossal body still remained, and that fact surprised both of the two demon hunters. Normally, when a demon dies, its body turns to ashes, no matter what. There weren't any exceptions… but in this case, that didn't happen.

"I've seen bigger demons than this one, but the fact that he didn't turn to dust is certainly curious…" Dante said.

Trish went ahead and ignored both Dante and Sinclaire, who were still behind her, talking. There was something she didn't like, and it wasn't the strange fact that his corpse hadn't been disintegrated. She could see something more sinister than the dreadful scene of blood and gore, actually; it was something shiny and flickering, and she had an odd feeling of déjà vu while she came closer to it. It was then, when she was close enough to the dead corpse of the demon that she could see it, and then she realized why she had that strange feeling of having already seen that demonic being. …She could also see the elegant blue spears that pierced his body, and she discovered that he wasn't a simple low ranked demon. …Her horrified face wasn't enough to express all the terrible thoughts that were running through her head at that moment.

"Hey, Dante, come here to check this out!"

Suddenly, Dante interrupted his conversation with the police chief and went to Trish, who stood motionless in front of the remains of the demon. The platinum-haired hunter immediately noticed the blonde's troubled expression, and that wasn't a good sign.

"Did you find something important? Or maybe you just got dizzy because of the sight of blood and guts of that thing? Let me tell you this is not like you, Trish." He sarcastically said in an attempt to ease the tense situation that had been created.

"…That thing…" She started to say, ignoring Dante's words while pointing with her finger at the corpse of that demon. "…That thing is the mud Golem, a demonic entity who serves the orders of Mundus."

…There was a sepulchral silence after her comment, and everything around them became tense and cold, not even Sinclaire dared to intervene in that situation. They were in silence for a few seconds, seconds that seemed like minutes, even hours, until Dante spoke.

"…Are you sure of it…?"

"Completely. And besides…" She bent down and grabbed one of the bullets that were scattered on the ground and smeared with blood. Once she collected it, she stood up and showed it to Dante. "These bullets didn't kill the demon… Those two spears from over there were the responsible of his dead, not the bullets." She concluded pointing upwards, where the lances still remained stuck in the body of the Golem.

"Was anyone else here?" He asked as he watched the two luminescent weapons with curiosity and interest, having a strange feeling of déjà vu, just like Trish.

"Ah, yes…" Said the middle-aged man from afar, remembering something important because of the question that the demon hunter had made before. "I remember that we have arrested a mercenary before we got in here."

"A mercenary you say?" The demoness asked turning her head.

"Yes, a woman, a mercenary I guess, but since we can't know it for sure, we arrested her to ask her some… questions. I told you that we still have to be cautious, considering what's been happening in the city during all these months."

"You remember what she looked like?" This time it was Dante who spoke, and he also turned his head to look at the brown eyes of the police chief.

"Well… she was a short woman with black hair who wore white clothes. I remember she broke her arm during the fight… or during whatever she was doing in here." Sinclaire said.

…And when he finished describing her, both the demoness and the half demon exchanged confused glances.

* * *

"Fuck damn it! I didn't do anything! Why do you fucking think I can have something to do with all that when I have a broken arm, eh? A broken arm! For the love of God, why would I want to break my own arm? It makes no sense!"

…Her angry rant was heard by two police officers: one of them watched the strange scene behind the glass shield while the other performed the tedious task of interrogating her. The young man who was in the same room as her could no longer hide his irritation that the huntress hadn't cooperated with him, and he couldn't remember how much time had passed since she arrived at the interrogation room with her arm in a cast; the only thing he knew was that time was passing painfully slowly since the interrogation began and, also, that he was wasting his time, since the brunette didn't seem to know anything about anything that had happened there and that it might be true what she had said about her only being a mercenary who was there to kill that demon. …Unfortunately, they couldn't trust anyone, and if they didn't get a compelling or logic response from her, then they could be like that until morning… or until he tired out and decided to send her to spend a few nights in jail for weapon possession. Anything could happen.

"Look, girl." He began. "I am the first one who wants to end with this and go home, right? But if you don't explain me what happened, we can't get out of here."

It was at that point of their 'peaceful' conversation when Lady's eyes widened as she began to have those homicidal impulses that normally appeared when Dante crossed the line between 'flirtation' and 'molestation'.

"I've told you a thousand times!" She shouted. "I went to the ruins of the tower, I spent some time inspecting the area and, suddenly, that gigantic thing attacked me! That's all!"

…Certainly, that was really going to take its time…

The officer heaved a long sigh and rose from his chair, heading towards the door and leaving the angry huntress alone in the room. Once outside, he was greeted by his companion, who turned off the speaker and turned his gaze away from the glass to look at him with a confused expression.

"Well? What do you think?"

The other man who sat on the chair simply shrugged.

"…To be perfectly honest with you, I don't fucking know if she's the best liar in the world or if she's telling us the truth, and that's a pretty sad fact for someone like me."

Before they could continue speaking, the door that led to the interrogation room was opened without permission. Of course, the two men were surprised, because they didn't expect anyone to interrupt their work. In front of them was their captain, John Sinclaire, along with two people with eccentric clothing. As strange as it was, the two were somewhat glad to see their boss there, because maybe he would know how to handle the situation.

"Sinclaire…! What are you doing here? We thought you were with the others in the ruins…"

"I changed my mind. Besides, they will manage fine without me."

…And then the three went inside the room under the confused gaze of the two officers. The middle-aged man waved his hand at Dante and Trish to check if the person inside the room was the one that they talked him about. Getting the message, the two demon hunters focused their gazes in the mirror, and they could get a glimpse of Lady's figure. She looked rather tired and she had an arm in a cast. Dante visibly winced when he saw it.

"Yes, she is." Trish said while turning her head towards Sinclaire.

"Very well." The police chief gathered his two hands and made his way towards the door to open it, but he was stopped by one of his subordinates.

"I'm not anyone to discuss your decisions, sir, but… She was carrying a lot of weapons, and some of them were quite dangerous… Wouldn't be dangerous if we let her go?"

"Believe me, if she uses those weapons it would be to kill demons, not humans, so there's nothing to fear; and besides, she's got a license of weapons, so all her confiscated weapons will be returned to her and she will be able to get away from here without charge, okay?"

The two slowly nodded their heads and got away from the room with the purpose of carrying out their superior's orders. Then, Trish and Dante went into the room where Lady was 'trapped', sitting on a plastic chair while staring with boredom her injured arm. …Of course, when she heard the sound of the door opening and the sound of footsteps coming toward her, she didn't expect to find those two in front of her when she looked up.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" She asked with a frown.

"What do you think? We came to rescue you from the vile clutches of the police system of this country. There's no need to thank us." The demoness said while she encouraged Lady to stand up. "C'mon, c'mon, the sooner we leave, the better! Besides, I don't think I can stand being here for too much longer…"

* * *

It was already night-time, and as usual, the dark storm clouds didn't let anyone see the stars that decorated the sky. It didn't matter much to them, anyway, because they were sheltered from the rain inside of Dante's office, where certainly there wouldn't enter not even a tiny drop of water-unless the old walls and the roof fell off. At first, Lady refused to come with them, but the demoness managed to make her change her mind. Dante still wondered how the fuck she did it.

…On the other hand, the atmosphere between them hadn't changed not even a bit, the tension could be cut by a knife, and it bothered Trish a lot, more than Lady's cold stare or Dante's indifference. Said man sat into his chair and had put his feet over the desk while passing the pages of an old magazine that he would surely have read thousands of times. The air around them became bleak… It felt as though, if anyone said anything, everything would just get more complicated. Knowing how stubborn Lady was, her attitude couldn't be questioned after all what happened, but Dante… Dante was a different case. He didn't usually bother himself with things that were beside the point, he didn't even care for the important things, anyway, but that day, after they took Lady away from the police station, the demon hunter seemed to be weird, weirder than usual. He seemed confused…engrossed in his own little world of absurd thoughts, and the fact that Dante was thinking of something serious wasn't a good thing. No, of course it wasn't, and she had to do something.

"…Well…" She began. "I've been out for a month and you aren't going to say anything?" She asked.

She didn't get an immediate reply from Lady, and she was tempted to resume her conversation in an attempt to get her talking, but by grace or disgrace, the blonde woman was interrupted by her flat voice.

"I fucked up, didn't I?" She suddenly asked, and Trish clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"What makes you think that?"

…There was no answer and Trish sighed.

"You just simply got caught off guard and that's all." Dante suddenly said, cutting into the conversation as he shrugged. "Don't think about it anymore."

"Yeah… Sure, sure…"

…And again, they all fell silent, Lady avoiding at all costs any kind of eye contact with Dante, turning her head to look through the window. She could see that the clouds were getting darker and darker, and it seemed that the wind was mixed with some droplets of rain. There was also a low rumble of thunder. It could start raining anytime, so she rose from her seat and walked to where her weapon of choice, Kalina Ann, rested. The demoness frowned when she saw Lady stand up, and Dante was also surprised by that.

"Where are you going?" The blonde asked while crossing her legs.

"I've got to get going before the storm prevents me of doing so; the last thing I want is to be stuck in here with him." She answered without turning her head, placing her hand on the rocket launcher.

"Oh, c'mon! It's not that bad to stay here, it will only be a day! There are more than enough beds in here and, if he tries something, I will electrocute him as many times as you want."

"…What kind of person do you think I am?" The platinum haired hunter inquired, looking up from the magazine and sounding indignant.

"Thanks… but I think I'll pass." The brunette woman replied.

Giving up, Trish simply shrugged, watching her carefully as she grabbed that big black rocket launcher she loved so much. She had the impulse to get up to help her, because she saw that the huntress was having problems in picking up the weapon, but she refrained that feeling because she knew that it would be useless, given the temper of the small woman. Dante also had that urge to offer her some help, he even had his feet on the floor.

Lady, meanwhile, was struggling to pick up the gun, but she tried her best to hide it. Having only one arm with mobility was a real shit, and the fact that her body was bruised and her ankle was killing her didn't help, either. She doubted that she would be able to resist more weight for much longer. Either way, she ignored the pain the best she could and, once again, grabbed the gun with decision, gathering strength to be able to tie it to the belt of her back with one arm. Her body was beginning to lose balance, staggering like a ballerina in the process, until the inevitable happened and her body gave away. …It happened too quickly, at least that's what the huntress thought as she felt a sharp pain in her left ankle, which had been twisted in a horrible position. She couldn't feel anything else besides that sharp pain, but still, with her eyes closed in an attempt to not scream in agony, she was aware that she was falling to the ground without any remedy, so she waited to stamp herself against the dirty floor of the Devil May Cry… but something cushioned her fall.

She was surprised by the fact that she didn't fall, and she didn't know what prevented her from eating the ground, truth be told. Fearful, she slowly opened her eyes, getting used to the artificial light from the half broken lamps of the shop. She recognized Trish's figure immediately, but the blonde wasn't the one who was holding her. So, she turned her head to the right and she saw him, standing next to her while holding her by the waist, with a facial expression that she didn't know how to interpret. It took her several seconds to remove her head from his chest and stop to grab his red coat in a steel grip. She eventually stood up in a better position. She bit her lip hard; the pain was unbearable, and she doubted that she would be able to remain upright for too much longer. Dante noticed this, so he helped her to sit on his old and gnawed couch, and surprisingly, she didn't reject his help. …She felt miserable…

"…You know what?" He began to say with a rather rough tone, much too rough for someone like him. "One of these days you will end up getting killed."

Her face twisted with angriness when she heard those words.

"What?"

"You're not invulnerable, Lady. Like it or not, you're human, and the probabilities of you dying are quite high, but if you continue with that attitude, these probabilities will continue rising and rising until you won't have any chance of survival."

"And you don't think I know that I'm human?" She angrily snapped, feeling defensive as she rose from the couch, ignoring the pain in her left ankle. "All this has done nothing but remind me that I am one! But what would you know, huh? You're just a demon, after all."

…Maybe she shouldn't have said that… When she saw Dante's annoyed scowl, she realized that it was a very bad move to have let that anger blind her. He was pissed, and he wasn't looking at her anymore. Trish, meanwhile, moved an inch or two away from them, knowing that all this would end in an epic battle where she, inevitably, would get shot by stray bullets.

Lady's gaze dropped and she bit her lip.

"Damn it, Lady." She heard Dante say from in front of her, his voice sounding closer and closer. "I'm not saying that you're weak or something like that; I'm only offering you help, ok? I hate to accept it too, but if I'm in trouble, then I have no other choice but to accept that help."

She still didn't answer him, but at least she looked at his face, which now was at a few inches away from hers, to her surprise. She realized that while she had been looking at the floor, upset by her own words, he had come closer to her, more than she normally allowed. She wanted to get away from there, but her mind was a total chaos. She knew that the half demon's presence made her angry, made her happy, made her upset but, especially, made her confused, because she felt strange when she felt that knot in her stomach every time he looked at her with intensity, or perhaps what made her feel worse was when he was by her side; the urges of touching him were sometimes uncontrollable, and she needed to reply to him with an ironic remark to erase her thoughts and return to her normal self.

Lady would never admit that she had a crush on Dante, never, and that was a fact that both of them knew perfectly…

"…I care about you; isn't that enough?" He inquired, bringing his face closer to hers.

She was at a loss at what to say, and the only thing she could do was stand there, helpless, while the platinum haired demon shortened the distance between their faces.

"…Sorry to interrupt!" Said the blonde demoness in front of them, who had witnessed how a scene that promised to be extreme gore and violence had become a prologue of a porn movie. "…But the storm has just begun and I wanted to know if you're finally staying in here. Just to satisfy my curiosity."

Dante and Lady were shocked, because neither of them had noticed Trish's presence, because they had forgotten that she was in the same room as them. Fortunately for Lady, Trish's interruption made her return to her normal self, and before something else could have happened, she shoved Dante away from her, scowling with anger.

When Dante made an attempt to get closer to her again, Lady just lowered her head and quickly walked away, heading toward the stairs while limping heavily in the process. After hearing the sonorous sound of the bedroom's door slamming shut, the demon hunter glared venomously at Trish, who only could reply him with a shrug.

"Look it on the bright side!" She told to him. "She's staying here~!"

* * *

**A/N: If I'm not mistaken, tempo is an extra move that consists in moving the same piece twice or defend an enemy piece...**

**Thanks for reading and see you again~.**


	4. Profilassi

**A/N: Sorry, sorry, SORRY! I've had a few problems with this chapter... Well, actually, I had lots of problems with this chapter. _Profilassi_ was the hardest chapter I ever wrote, and because of that I have the strange feeling that I have rushed it a little... Tsk, damn it... Well, it's alright: if you see something that needs to be corrected, let me know it, okay? Thanks for reading~~**

**bluesonic115**: I'm glad you liked it. Thanks, really~.

**Da'Burgh73**: *facepalm* yeah, I know... I'm actually looking for a beta, but as for today, there has been no one who has replied me yet, so... Oh well.

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 4: Profilassi**

* * *

_He was inside a grand cathedral. Or... maybe he wasn't in the physical sense, but he was sure that what he was seeing was a chappel full of fancy decoratives and whatnot. Beautiful red roses were placed all around it._

_What... was going on...?_

_"That looks good on you, Oray." A woman in a red, silky gown said with amusement, her eyes shining with a spark of rejoicing. "Black is such a nice, elegant color~, so fitting~." She giggled._

_"I'm really honored; it doesn't happen everyday, that such a nice thing comes out from your mouth." Replied the demon whose name was Oray, who was dressed with an elegant, black outfit like the ones that nobles used in the early modern period. In a gloved hand, he was holding a silver sword._

_In front of him and next to the chatty woman, there was a filthy, blood-stained altar, rectangle-shaped. Laying in the cold stone, there was a lady in white with disheveled hair and ivory skin, looking as though she had been dragged out from a lake. Her dry, blue lips, along with the bloody wounds all over her body... ... it couldn't be good. It hurt just to look at her._

_She looked dead._

_The hunter thinks he knows that woman with black hair._

_The priestess cackled. "I never thought I would see this for real~! In the end, it all went according to the plan, eh? So lovely~."_

_The chatty woman and the demon seemed to be enjoying themselves, but the moribund woman, however, not so much. Was she still breathing? Was she really dead or does she only look like it and that's all?_

_"You are able to hear us, but you can't answer, right?" _

_..._

_What-_

_Was he talking to her, or was he talking to... him? Who was he talking to? The hunter tries to speak, but he can't. _

_"…Don't worry, okay?" Oray sneered with an evil smile that would make even demons want to avert their gaze. "I will take care of her soul in your absence." He laughed loudly. "It's useless to run away or fight back!"_

* * *

He opened his eyes slowly, feeling the annoying rays of sunlight burn his tired eyes. A groan escaped from his dry lips as his eyes slowly got used to the overshot light in his room and his body reincorporated in a better position.

"…Shit…" The half demon growled hoarsely with disgust as he sat on the mattress of the bed. "…What a weird dream…"

Of course it was…! It couldn't even be considered as a nightmare. It was weird, illogical… Such an odd scene he had never seen before...

...

...

Well.

Dreams were dreams, he supposed. It would be better if he let it go, since the dream didn't make sense at all.

So, without further ado, shaking his head to finally awaken, he got out of the bed and made his way towards the bathroom to do his morning ritual and, why not, take a shower.

Once he had finished, he walked down stairs to his office and, to his surprise, he found Trish in front of him, in front of the desk, fully armed and dressed in her usual black leather outfit. It seemed that she had just arrived -why else would she be awake?-, and by her sleepy face, it also seemed that she had gotten up too early.

"You know, I didn't take you as a woman who liked to get up early, Trish." He said while he sat on his chair and put his feet over the desk. "Where's Lady, anyway?"

Trish's eyes tightened as she made her way towards him with her hands on her hips.

"Fortunately, she's gone before she had the chance of enjoying your bad taste in breakfast."

"Really now?"

"I had to take her home quite early, possibly because of her broken arm that didn't let her sleep, I guess- This explains the appearance of these awful dark circles." Trish pointed with her index finger her lower eyelid, which was slightly obscured.

"…So that means that we can talk calmly, without interruptions. Not so bad."

"Talk? About what?"

"I think you know it quite well… What was a servant of Mundus doing here?" He suddenly asked, and all the amusement and arrogance disappeared from his eyes.

The demoness sighed. "…If I did, I would have told you."

"…Great. So then we have a horde of demons in the city, a man who summons them and a servant of Mundus impaled by spears. Just perfect." He said with false mockery. "It seems that someone wants to annoy me, and it seems that it's working. …But I don't like to be annoyed."

"Dante, this is serious." Trish said with a sharp tone. "Golems are very powerful and it's very rare for such demons to access this world."

"I know it." He said calmly. "Of course I know it," he showed her a fake grin "but let me do this, please, I must do it."

_To endure all this shit._ Dante said to himself.

The discussion between them was going to drag on, but suddenly, the doorbell rang and they both had to stop. The two looked up at the same time and saw a girl turning around, ready to leave. Perhaps she heard their conversation…?

"Excuse me; I think I should have called before." She said opening the door to get out from there.

Alarmed, Dante and Trish ran quickly towards the door in an attempt to retain a potential customer.

"Do not worry, we weren't talking about anything impor-" She stopped in mid-sentence when she saw her face. "Kyrie?"

The girl nodded with shyness, which made Trish even more surprised. She didn't recognize her. Physically, she was still the same, but her clothes had changed radically. Used to see her wearing that long white dress of the order of the sword, Trish was surprised to see her wearing just a simple beige dress that reached to her knees, black leggins and brown knee-high boots. A curious thing she also noticed was that there was no trace of the symbol of the order of the sword in her clothing… but considering that the order was 'destroyed' months ago, when Dante went to Fortuna, it didn't seem that peculiar and strange.

"Well… You changed a lot, didn't you?" Trish finally said, still visibly surprised.

"A lot of things have changed since what happened with Sanctus." Kyrie replied timidly.

"I see, I see…"

"Um… Sorry to change the subject, but… Can I talk with Dante? Nero asked me to come here and get him."

"What's up with the kid?" Dante asked while approaching to them. "He is so busy killing demons that he can't come here himself?"

"More or less…" Said the teenager with a sigh. "As I said before, things have changed a lot since the fall of the order of Fortuna, but not for the better; we knew that after the fiasco that occurred with Sanctus and the Saviour, Fortuna would have a very high level of demonic activity, so we had to be prepared for anything before starting to rebuild the city… but we never thought that things would come to this point. We are almost invaded by them."

"Invaded, you say?" Trish put her hands on her hips. "Isn't that the same thing that's happening here?" She mused. Then she snorted and smiled a little, knowingly. "What do you think, Dante? Is there a connection?"

"There's only one way to find out." Concluded the half demon with a shrug.

With that, Kyrie didn't need another reply, and Dante's heart was settled. With demons, coincidences can't happen.

The young girl replied him with a cordial bow. "…Thank you…" She said almost inaudibly, but Trish and Dante heard her loud and clear.

"That kid needs to learn that there are some things that should be left to your elders. Besides, today I'm in a good mood; I've got a great, great urge to kick some asses." He spun and headed towards the stairs while the two women kept staring at him. "Go ahead, I'll catch you later." He said to them, downplaying the issue.

With a gesture of conformity, slightly shrugging her shoulders, Trish also made her way towards the exit along with Kyrie, both of them willing to go to Fortuna, where the chaos had been unleashed at the same time it happened in Capulet, while Dante prepared his arsenal of weapons to fight against that 'invasion'. He didn't take too long, truth be told, because in a moment, in the blink of an eye, Rebellion was placed over his back and Ebony & Ivory were put in their respective holsters. All ready.

He went downstairs quickly, but before he could leave his home -home, office, organized chaos-, his eyes transfixed on his old-looking phone that stood on his disheveled desk. He stared at it for several seconds until he suddenly grabbed it and started to dial a phone number, but he immediately stopped and frowned. …It was true that he wasn't the only one hired for the job, that it was Lady's job too… but it didn't matter if she didn't like it, that mission was dangerous, and it wasn't a very good idea to go there with an injured arm, because she wasn't like him, she couldn't instantaneously heal her wounds and he can't have an eye on her all the time.

That didn't mean that he underestimated her skills as a demon hunter, of course, but in a sea of bloodthirsty high-ranked demons he wouldn't be able to have an eye on her and then, possibly, she would end hurt… or even with something worse. Besides, he didn't want to involve anyone more in that shit. It was his personal matter.

So, with nothing more to do, Dante hung up the phone as he let out a sigh and walked away towards the exit doors with the purpose of following the two female silhouettes that could still be recognizable from where he was.

* * *

"Alright, I understand everything you said about that Fortuna was screwed up and all that… Ok, yeah, no problems with it, I get it… But I didn't expect to find this scenario, either."

The streets of the Castle Town of Fortuna remained destroyed, dusty, filled with debris and stained with blood. There was so much blood that neither of them could actually tell if it was human or not. The streetlights were also destroyed, of course, and its crystals were scattered everywhere, making clattering noises as they walked. It was, undoubtedly, a very sad, apocalyptic and decadent scenario.

"I told you that things had changed a lot since the last time you came here…" Kyrie said with a hint of sadness.

As they kept walking through the repetitive and destroyed streets, Trish couldn't help but feel uncomfortable there, so she frowned. The way in which that place had been destroyed was slightly familiar to her, and she had the feeling that high-ranked demons were the ones behind this 'invasion'. Besides, it was too quiet in there; it was as if Fortuna had become a ghost town. …Yeah, that place was too quiet, too damn quiet…

"…Are you okay, Trish?" The voice of the platinum-haired man broke her train of thoughts, bringing her back to reality. "You're paler than usual."

"…Huh? Ah no, it was nothing." She said with a fake smile, playing down the issue. "I was just thinking, that's all. …Besides, where is Nero supposed to be?" She suddenly asked, changing the subject. "We've been looking for him for an hour and we still haven't found him."

And then Kyrie stopped in her tracks, making Dante and Trish to do the same, turning their heads to look at her. The girl put a hand on her hip and looked around, making sure that they hadn't taken the wrong path. Then, she slightly turned her head backwards, but she still didn't find anything. Finally, she let out a sigh.

"The last time I saw him he was here with the other citizens, cleaning the area… I think…"

"Well, maybe he went to kill demons at another place." Trish walked towards one of the puddles of blood and bent down, looking at it cautiously while touching it with her index finger. When she removed it, the demoness stared at her bloodstained finger closely and sighed. "The blood seems to be very recent, and I think it's from a demon."

"In other words, we've been walking in circles for nothing." The half demon summarized as he crossed his arms around his chest.

"Maybe if we take separated paths we will find him sooner…" The demoness proposed. "I will go back down the path with Kyrie and you continue forward, ok?"

Dante dropped his arms from his chest and put them on his hips as he turned backwards. It was a long route, that was for sure, and the worst thing of all that was that there wasn't any kind of bifurcation, which made it seem to be even more endless. Dante opened his mouth and a dissatisfied growl escaped from his lips.

"You must be shitting me…"

"Stop whining and look it on the bright side!" Trish shouted from afar. "Perhaps, if you're lucky, you will find some 'friends' to play with!"

"Yeah, yeah…! Sure, sure…!"

…And they disappeared through the dust and fog as he turned around to resume his walking. He put his hands inside his pockets and looked at his surroundings: during the 'trip', Dante saw lots and lots of ruined houses and edifices covered in dust. It seemed interminable, as if its design was copied and then pasted thousands of times, but fortunately, it didn't last for too long. Gradually, the landscape changed and the small ruined houses couldn't be seen anymore. That was the irrefutable sign that he was close to find some sort of new road or a bifurcation or… something. Well, he wasn't wrong at all, because he finally arrived at a crossroads.

He took the left path and, to his displeasure, he found out that this new path was going to be as the previous one, with the same tedious landscape. Great… He grimaced with disgust but continued walking, don't giving a shit about anything until he felt something strange in the air. He stopped in midway and looked at his surroundings, but everything seemed pretty normal, and he didn't sense any other demon aside from him either, so he didn't know what was exactly bothering him so much. …He frowned and folded his arms, walking in circles as he kept looking at the area. Soon, he realized that something wasn't quite right. He approached to the walls at his right.

…There was something drawn in there and it certainly wasn't a fancy graffiti painted by a rebellious kid who defied the rules of law and order. There were a lot of magic circles that glowed with an intense blue light whenever he approached to them. He curiously touched one of them with his fingers, but nothing happened. He withdrew them and saw blue dust covering his thumbs. Chalk, he thought.

Dante moved away from the symbols, but they never stopped glowing. Soon, he realized that he was surrounded by those things, and when they burst in thousands of shinning crystals and disappeared, making a horrible cracking sound, he knew he was screwed, because instead of the arcane symbols appeared demons of various shapes and sizes, whose eyes glowed in a deep crimson light.

…But either way, a part of him knew that something like that would happen, so he wasn't too shocked about it. He just mockingly smiled to the demons in front of him as he took his twin guns from their respective holsters.

"Maybe as a huntress she doesn't earn too much money, but I bet that if she was a fortuneteller, she would be rich by now…"

* * *

The scenario of the other two women wasn't too different from Dante's, anyway. The design of the houses was the same throughout the streets, the ruins were still visible and the puddles of blood were also there. There were no people in there; Fortuna was, certainly, like a ghost town.

"So… How did it begin?" The blonde demoness asked with a closed eye in an attempt to start a conversation.

Kyrie frowned and narrowed her eyes, trying to remember.

"Hmm… Yes, I remember, it all started after the fall of the order, after stopping Sanctus." The teenager finally replied as she followed Trish. "When both of you left, we decided to 'clean up' the order."

"So you mean that the order was still active?"

"…More or less, but that's not all. Indeed, the order remained active; with very few people, but active, nonetheless. Some of them guarded the zones to prevent the appearance of demons, and the others helped to rebuild the city, but…" She suddenly paused, fixing her brown eyes on the bloodstained floor as they kept walking.

"…But…?"

"But then, they arrived. At first, we didn't know who those people were, but then, they proclaimed themselves as members of the old order of the sword; in other words, they were more of the same, humans corrupted by demons." Trish frowned, confused, and Kyrie continued her explanation. "We tried to oppose to them, but they were too many and too strong. No one could do anything to stop them, no one, and it was then when those portals to the demon world appeared and everything was reduced to this."

"…I see… And is there a bigger portal than those that you talked me about?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm asking you if there's a bigger portal than those that you talked me about. From what I can deduce, those portals that you've talked me about have a standard size, and those kinds of portals have limited powers that makes them disappear very soon. …Only low-ranked demons can appear from these portals, and this chaos doesn't seem to be caused by low-ranked demons, you see? And besides, the entrance of demons has been constant since the arrival of those people, or at least, that's what I understood, so there's must be a very big portal where high-ranked demons can access to this world. I'm sure that those kinds of demons were responsible for the destruction of your city."

"…" She remained silent for several seconds, but she finally replied. "…Nero said that near the Opera house… or inside of it, there was a bigger portal than the others."

"How big was it, exactly?" Asked the demoness.

"Maybe it was of the size of a swimming pool, or perhaps a little bi-"

…She suddenly stopped her dialogue when she saw that her companion had been left behind, frozen in the middle of the dusty street, as if she was on guard. There was something in her eyes that she couldn't know exactly what it was. Something seemed to upset her, and it also made her uneasy.

"What's the matter?" She asked as she walked towards her.

"I've sensed a very powerful demonic presence." Trish said in alarm. "…A very powerful one…"

At that moment, both of them saw thousands of red glowing spots in front of them, from afar. The brown-haired girl turned backwards and she also saw those disturbing things behind her, glowing intensely. As she approached the blonde woman and pressed her back to hers, she understood that they were surrounded by them and that they couldn't escape.

"Damn it, why do they always have to be so opportune?" The blonde woman complained.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Listen, you must get away from here as soon as possible, okay? Don't get cornered and stay away from the center, you understand?"

Kyrie nodded and slowly drifted away from there because there was no need to be brave and disobey her; those blazing pupils told her what would happen if she did such a thing.

Meanwhile, Trish took out her guns from their respective holsters and looked at the silent plain, waiting for the demons to appear and attack her. After several seconds of waiting, nothing happened, so she decided to start walking towards them to tempt them, but the demons seemed to pay no attention to her. That fact surprised her a little, but soon, a small spider demon began to move towards her, and so did its mother, a giant spider that jumped down from the rooftop of an edifice, showing its incisors and hissing before attacking Trish. She fired without hesitation, and when she did, all the other spiders jumped and attacked her. Trish just smiled, killing them with her guns without any kind of problem. Soon, strange-looking shadows that looked like bloody goats appeared, faster and stronger than the spider demons. It was then when Trish finally had to move from her position using her demonic skills, dodging scratches and bites while shooting at the demons with her guns. She also had to use her electricity spells when those annoying demons came too close to her.

Among all that unprecedented chaos, the blonde woman couldn't see Kyrie's silhouette, who tried to dodge all the demons that came to her. She was doing it pretty well, but she eventually stumbled and fell down because of the excess of debris on the floor, becoming an easy prey for the demons, who instantly became aware of it.

"Help!"

One of the blood goats sprinted to her and grabbed a hold of the back of Kyrie's hair and pulled it up. Her desperate punches and kicks were of no use against the powerful body of that demon, who ignored them as if they were nothing.

Trish also sprinted to her, fulminating the demons that got in her way with electricity. Then, she rammed into the blood goat with her shoulder, spun, bashed the back of her elbow into the goat's jaw, and thrust the barrel of the gun inside the demon's mouth. The blast from the bullet of her black gun exploded inside the goat head's throat and after exploding in a festival of gore, it turned to dust after that. Kyrie, who had been released, ran to another place where there wasn't any demons, leaving the field open to Trish, who still looked overwhelmed by all the demons that constantly harassed her. Both spiders and blood goats ran towards her with a violent vigor, as though they planned to crush Trish with those massive bodies. The blonde woman was forced to kill them with a devastating lightning bolt, turning them into nothing but dust. After that, she continued shooting at the remaining demons.

Thankfully, her shots gradually ceased and only the low rumbles of thunder could be heard in the distance, claiming that it was going to rain again. …And there she was, surrounded by dust and covered in blood. With a long sigh of relief, Trish walked slowly towards Kyrie.

"Everything alright?" The demoness casually asked while putting her guns on their respective holsters.

"…Yes… Thank you…" She said with a sheepish smile as she tried to 'clean' her clothes. "Sorry for not being helpful…" She apologized with resignation.

"It was nothing, really; after all, this is my job, and they were a joke." She shrugged with a carefree smile. "C'mon, let's get going."

At that time, when the two of them turned to continue their path, there was a sudden and massive roar of thunder. The wind blew even stronger, and in the middle of the rubble and surrounded by the dust lifted by the breeze of air, a figure appeared, leaving Trish practically stunned.

...That... that person was...

"It's been a while, right Trish? Have you been healthy? The truth is that I didn't expect to see you here." …His voice was familiar to her, too familiar, and it made her feel uneasy, again. Then, the figure of a blonde man with crimson eyes and pale skin materialized in front of the two women; his appearance clearly suggested that he wasn't a human being, and he was smirking at Trish roguishly. A chill went down Trish's spine, as though she felt that his gaze was staring right through her. "Such a troublesome time for you to be here… Or should I welcome you? Actually, I was just a little bored, but I don't know if someone as dishonest as you would be worthy of a party like this."

Normally, Trish would have beaten up anyone who dared to insult her like that, but at that moment, Trish forgot all her pride, unable to do anything but stand there next to Kyrie, shocked.

"…I see you've been able to recognize me even though I'm not in my true form… "The man chuckled. "It's impressive, really, but if you continue to look at me so fixedly, you might burn a hole through my face, you know?"

"…You…" She muttered, puzzled by his sudden appearance, but she soon recovered from her astonishment when things fitted in her mind. "So then this is another game of yours, am I right?" She added with a serious tone of voice.

"More or less" He calmly said. "Until the seal is not broken, this can't be considered as a real game; it's more like an intermezzo in which we have to have the pawns ready."

"_Have the pawns ready_?"

"You don't know what that means? Ah, dear, it seems that it wasn't a good idea to let you go away for such a long time, you got too used to the calmness." The demon reasoned. "Either way, I think it's better this way; there's no need for you to know more than you should, so everything is alright." The blond-haired demon pulled an envelope with the seal of the Order of the Sword from the pocket of his grayish pants and gave it to Trish. "Give this to the Son of Sparda. It's an invitation to the banquet of resurrection of our Master; I'm sure he will love to be there. I remember that he liked this kind of parties, right?"

Trish frowned and clicked her tongue in frustration as she picked up the letter that she had to deliver to Dante from the icy hands of that demon.

"Oh… I almost forgot…" The blonde walked slowly towards the brown haired girl, ignoring Trish's killer glares. "I also have one for you." He said as he pulled out another letter, giving it to her.

"Eh…? F-for m-me…?" She stammered.

She probably hadn't imagined that the demon would speak to her, too. Kyrie was bewildered at this second envelope, which was thrust before her. She remembered seeing that western envelope. …There could be no mistake. It was the Order of the Sword's special envelope, used when his holiness wrote with his own hand and bearing the fancy symbol of the order, engraved in red. This man... was holding a personal letter from someone who could have a very strong connection to the former order of the sword...!

"Since you are the closest person to that kid, you will be the chosen one to deliver this letter to him. Tell him to not reveal its contents to anyone. …His_ party_ is a party that shouldn't be interrupted by anyone, you understand?"

"…"

Kyrie looked back and forth several times between the man's face and the envelope that was handed her. She didn't know how to reply, so she just took the letter from his hands without saying a word.

"Well, Trish… We will see each other at the banquet. Don't forget to deliver him the letter, yes?"

The demon turned his back to her, laughing, and then began to disappear into the darkness with an air of composure. Behind him, Kyrie and Trish stood motionless, both of them with their respective letters and with disturbed faces. …Neither of them knew what would happen next.

* * *

"Damn! They are so fucking annoying…!" Dante growled as he removed all the scythes that pierced his bloodstained body. Around him, there where piles and piles of dust, the irrefutable proof that the battle between him and the demons was longer than expected.

And now that he no longer had to worry about those bothersome infernal creatures, he realized that the weather had gotten worse faster than he had expected: The rain was no longer falling weakly, and the wind blew strongly, but it seemed more like a prologue than the actual storm.

When the half demon removed all the scythes, he looked at his black shirt with disgust.

"Fucking damn it!" He complained. "I just started the mission and my shirt is already torn up! And now I have to find-where the fuck is my coat? …Great." He said while looking around. At last, he saw his red piece of clothing in a corner, so he approached to pick it up, cleaning it once he had it in his hands.

Then, Dante threw his coat to the air, and with his arms raised, he waited it to fall on him, but when he realized that it didn't fall...

"Lookin' for somethin'?"

It was a brattish voice. An arrogant, brattish voice.

Dante turned to his left and was greeted by an unexpected guest.

With a smirk on his face, Nero held Dante's coat with his devil arm, and the half-devil supposed he was able to grab it thanks to his devil bringer. The kid wasn't alone, though; along him, there were dozens of villagers of Fortuna, all armed and covered in blood. They had surely helped him in his demon hunting missions, that was for sure.

Quickly, the red coat was turned into a ball and then it was thrown at Dante, who grabbed it in mid-air and put it on.

"How opportune…" He said with mock sweetness. "You better have something important to tell me, kid, because I don't like to waste my time."

"Really now? So you're tired, huh? I see… I already knew that you were getting old, but I didn't expect to see you like this… poor thing…"

Dante narrowed his eyes and smiled sarcastically. He really had to teach that ungrateful kid a lesson or two.

"Are you going to say something coherent or are you going to keep trying to look better than me? Because if that's what you're going to do, then let me warn you that it's completely useless; you aren't nearly as good as I am, you see kid? Look at me; I lived my life surrounded by sexy babes, and what about you? You don't have any kind of experience aside from that catholic little girl."

Nero growled maliciously at that, even though he knew that Dante was only messing with him.

"Heh, whatever you say, old man, but now we have to talk about more important things than making you understand that I'm better than you. I didn't call you for nothing." The teenager said as he put his hands on his hips with a haughty look.

Realizing that he was not willing to join in with his game, Dante shrugged. Ah, he really hated the kid when he was like that. He sounded so boring, so icy, so unlike himself… So much like Vergil.

Dante shook his head, shooing those thoughts away. He willed himself to concentrate on the present. "…And what would that be…?" The half demon asked with a raised eyebrow, coming back to reality.

Nero turned around and headed towards the villagers with an air of determination. He began to give them orders of 'returning to the save area' and not to get close to 'the opera house of the city'. Some of them didn't seem to agree with him, but they eventually gave up and began to dissipate, tired of killing demons. Nero knew that they had fought very hard and he didn't plan to take them with him while he was Dante's 'tour guide'. Then, when the villagers were gone, the silver-haired boy walked towards Dante, sighing tiredly.

"I need to show you something." He said.

* * *

The change of scenery was quite foreboding in the eyes of the hunter when they arrived there, to Fortuna's opera house. …The city had been reduced to nothingness, but that old edifice remained intact, without any scratch, and that was something pretty peculiar, indeed, and the devil hunter felt uneasy whenever he tried to approach the doors of the entrance of that dignified building. It was a familiar feeling, but he couldn't exactly remember where he had felt such a powerful aura before. The power was so strong that every hair on Dante's body stood up.

"What's this?" He asked.

"There's a portal to the demon world inside there. All the demons that destroyed Fortuna appeared from this portal."

…The fact that there was a portal inside there explained the strange feeling that Dante had, but it was still too exaggerated.

"Do you know how big this portal is?"

"The only thing I know for certain is that this portal is big, very big… maybe as huge as a swimming pool."

"Fuck, that's strange… I knew that Fortuna's demonic activity would be pretty high because of the Hellgates, but this is too much…"

"It all started when you left, and truth be told, I didn't expect anything like this to happen…" Nero sighed and put his hands on his hips, looking at the dirty floor as he began to explain what happened: "When the fiasco with the Saviour and Sanctus ended and you left, we began to rebuild the city and clean up the corrupt Order of the Sword. We also created groups of people in order to deal with the occasional demons that appeared from nowhere. Almost none of them had been members of the original Order of the Sword, and the ones that had been members of said Order knew almost nothing about what happened there because they were low ranked knights."

"That means that the Order of Sword had been active? Pfft."

"We were only a small group of people dedicated to demon hunting, but believe me, even though there were only a few, training them to fight demons has been more exasperating than I expected. I guess I'm not made for teaching…" He mused.

"And did the villagers discover the truth about what happened? I'm sure they have asked lots of times what happened in the city, the fall of the Order and all that stuff."

"The official story of what had happened was that the power had corrupted Sanctus, so he wanted to pose as a god, summoning demons to kill them himself, but the man in red who supposedly killed him during the Festival of the Blade was able to solve that problem. Kyrie and I spread that rumor without saying names, that's why I called you 'man in red' during my explanation. No one doubted the authenticity of that story and, if someone did, that someone didn't say anything. We thought that things would be better this way."

"That's good. And what about the portal inside the opera house?"

"That happened when _they _arrived here…" The young hunter replied as his eyes narrowed in sign of rage.

"They?"

"Some people in white robes suddenly appeared in Fortuna, claiming that they were the true members of the old Order of the Sword. We tried to oppose to them, but it was useless. I, myself, tried to confront them, make them understand that they weren't welcome here, but that damn black-haired man didn't let me do it... He stopped me."

"Did a human beat you?" He asked incredulously. "You must be shitting me." He laughed.

"That man wasn't human, or at least, he didn't seem to be one. Because of him and his companions, Fortuna was reduced to this; because of him, demons appeared from the portals they opened." He clenched his teeth. "I remember perfectly his face and voice… and if I ever see him again, I swear he will pay for this."

…Both of them fell silent when Nero said those words. Dante, in an attempt to break the tense situation, walked towards the entrance of the Opera house and changed the subject of the conversation.

"There must be a way to close this portal… Maybe there's some kind of spell or something like that that can close it…"

"Wait!"

The half demon stopped and turned his head to look at Nero.

"What?"

"You shouldn't get too close to it…"

"Why? I don't sense any other demon aside from you and me, so we're the only ones here; we're relatively safe."

"It's not that…" The white-haired young boy said as he bent down to pick up a grayish rock of epic proportions. "This is the problem…"

The teenager threw the rock towards the entrance of the edifice, but it never hit its doors, nor did it hit the ground. …Its path was halted by the appearance of a purple barrier that appeared just when the rock got too close to the entrance. At that moment, said rock began to slowly burn because of the power that the barrier emanated until it was finally reduced to dust. Dante winced visibly, because if he had retreated just three steps less than he already had, he would already have been turned to dust by now.

"We already tried to get inside there…" Nero said. "…But as you can see, there is a seal that prevents the entry to the interior; I really have to thank my accelerated healing ability, because if it haven't been for it, my arm would have been melted like a popsicle in summer."

"And there's no other way to get inside?"

"I doubt it…"

"Great…"

"Great? That's the only thing you can say? Dude, I didn't call you to make myself the victim, y'know? Don't you have any idea to close that portal?"

"Well, breaking the seal of the door would be a very good idea to get inside, but that thing must have lots and lots of demonic spells and things like that and I don't know how to break them."

"You're a great source of information, Dante…"

"Hey, insinuating that I'm retarded isn't going to help us. Besides, I can be pretty smart when I want."

Nero sniggered. "Ha, that was funny, very funny."

"Yea, sure, whatever you say."

"Then, let me advise you not to hurt yourself, Dante… you know, since thinking is something foreign for you."

"Ahahah! What an orginal and hilarious joke!" He mocked as he pointed at him.

Nero only rolled his eyes and began to move away from Dante and the opera house. He still wasn't in the mood for jokes, and less if those jokes were Dante's jokes. If he tolerated his presence was because of the fragile situation of his hometown, nothing more, nothing less, and now he was questioning himself. Was it really a good idea to call him? He didn't seem to know anything, anyway.

"Hey, hey, hey…! Where are you going?" Dante asked him from behind as he tried to catch up with him.

"Maybe that blonde partner of yours knows how to break that thing." He replied.

"Ah, you mean Trish? …Hm, perhaps you're right and she may know something but…May I ask you why the fuck do you know her?"

* * *

She didn't know how much time had passed since they arrived there, to the refuge of Fortuna. The only thing she knew was that she couldn't stop from looking at the white envelope with the seal of the order engraved in red in it. She didn't have any idea of what could be written in there, but since it was a message from Mundus, she suspected that that letter would only bring them problems, lots and lots of problems.

Kyrie, like the blonde, couldn't stop from looking at her letter, the one who was addressed to Nero. …However, unlike Trish, she had a nervous and fearful expression on her face. The demoness understood her fears, because Nero wasn't involved in all that mess… And that made her wonder why would he want to invite Nero too… That didn't make any kind of sense at all…

"Do you know what could be written inside?" The brown-haired girl asked with a weak voice while looking at the letter with the seal of the Order of the Sword in it.

Trish shook her head.

"It might be anything, hun." She replied.

Then, Kyrie tried to open it and reveal its contents, but she was stopped by Trish's hands.

"Don't, it might be a trap; only the addressed one can open it."

So, knowing that, her gaze dropped and she sighed, moving her slender finger away from the opening of the letter. …And they fell silent again, as they were hours and hours before, sitting in a chair while looking at the envelopes, at the injured people that were inside and at the few other villagers that had arrived minutes ago, covered in blood. Damn, where the fuck is that moronic asswipe? She wasn't a person who lost patience with ease, but-

"This is the last time you make me walk around the city like an idiot."

…The old wooden doors of the refuge opened, and Trish could see Dante and Nero's figure, both of them covered in blood.

Alleluia.

"Hey, if you're tired is because you're getting old, not my fault." Nero said. "Besides, I didn't know they weren't looking for us in the city anymore, so don't blame me."

Kyrie was faster than her, and she walked towards Nero with decision, dragging him away from Dante. Trish looked at them with suspiciousness as she walked towards Dante, who didn't notice the demoness' glare. …But he noticed that Trish was acting a bit… strange.

"What's wrong with you? Did you really miss us that much?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's coming back." She said with a serious tone, ignoring Dante's questions.

"He?

"He."

"... ..." Dante scowled.

"Dante...?"

"Impossible."

Trish gave him the letter that the nameless demon gave her hours earlier. The hunter picked it up and opened it, and when he did so, he began to read its contents. …She never knew what was written in that paper, but she could tell by Dante's face that it wasn't anything good.

"I see… So he wants to fuck up my day, eh?" He said while tearing the letter into shreds. "It seems that he didn't have enough that day, and now he comes back with the only purpose of pissing me off." Dante punched the nearest wall, creating a hole in it. The people stared at him, of course; even Kyrie and Nero stopped their conversation to see what was happening. "I told him to give regards to my son when he turned back… But no, he had to come back before I even had the chance of having one." He ranted while gesturing with his hands. "Well, unfortunately for him, he's going to brighten my day, because I have a great urge for kicking his ass right now."

"Dante…" Trish started to say in an attempt to calm him down.

"Today I will finally end his miserable life, this time I won't let him escape; he will pay for all he's done, once and for all!"

* * *

**A/N: With this chapter, the 'introduction' is over, and the 'real' plot begins... or at least, it should. And also, blatant reference to Silent Hill 2 and Umineko thanks to the scene with the letters. Sorry, you know I couldn't resist; inviting people to _parties _looks so badass when it's made via letters... you just have to read 'And Then There Were None' to make sure of that. Epicness at its best.**

**Possible errors (aside from grammatical errors) in this chapter: The locations of the places in Fortuna. It's been a long time since I last played Devil May Cry 4, and even though I made a little of research and played it again for a little while, I'm still not sure if they are correct.**

**Profilassi: Prophylaxis is a move that frustrates an opponent's plan or tactic.**


	5. Richiamo

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I was very busy, I really was ;A;. I tried to keep writing in my free time, but my poor muse ran out of ideas at some point of this chapter, so that might explain why there are parts that seem rushed, awkward or random. My bad -_-".**

**Benifuku:** Now, now... there's nothing to be sorry for. You're right, Dante and Nero's interaction was one of the parts that I rushed in that chapter, so that's why they act like that; they should be snappier towards each other, yes, but I didn't exactly know how to do it. No wonder it ended like that... I find Nero's personality hard to write, so that may explain it. Oh, and thanks for the compliment, it's always good to know that there's people who enjoy the way I write, since I'm not a native English speaker.

**Blackpearly**: Créeme, fue difícil escribirlo, pero peor fue traducirlo... Es lo que tiene los capítulos largos, sobretodo los que tienen muchos párrafos descriptivos, como en el capitulo 3. Oh, no te preocupes, dentro de unos cuantos capítulos (todavía no sé en cual) Lady volverá a hacer acto de presencia. Por favor, ella es demasiado cabezota como para dejar que Dante se encargue de todo, y siento lo del cliffhanger, pero debía hacerlo; es más, puesto que la trama recién empieza, habrán unos cuantos cliffhangers más... Soy así de cruel.

**Truthfulsoul:** Don't worry, you weren't being obnoxious. If I was you, I would have done the same thing, so that's alright. Those errors are now corrected. Thanks for your review; really, it flatters me a lot to know that someone thinks that I'm pretty good with English. The education system of my country concerning this language isn't very good, you know? I had to learn it by myself, so yeah... that really flatters me.

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 5: Richiamo**

* * *

The two of them arrived at that place very quickly, courtesy of Dante's anxiousness. Trish was still a bit concerned about Nero and the contents of his letter, but at that time she had more important things to worry about: that banquet of resurrection of Mundus didn't seem like it would bring anything good.

Dante heaved a long sigh as he looked cautiously that abandoned building. Nero had showed him what that barrier could do and, given the destructive power it had, he didn't exactly know how to pass through it; of course, there had to be a way to do that, because if not, it would be illogical to invite someone to enter into an inaccessible place… But now that he thought about it, it was Mundus the one who was in charge of that ceremony, so it could be possibly a trap to burn him to death. …He had never played fair.

"What are you looking at so thoughtfully?" His partner asked. "I don't think it would be a very good idea to stand here, doing nothing."

"I was just checking this out." He answered as he slowly made his way towards the entrance.

"That's weird."

With all that said, Trish followed Dante, because she noticed that he was moving away from her, which could only mean that he already decided to go inside of the opera house. As much as he knew about the dangers that that thing had, Dante didn't seem to be perturbed or worried about it; actually, the way he walked and the huge grin of self-confidence that appeared on his lips were the irrefutable proof that he didn't care too much about that. He would have more than enough time to get angry and get worried, now he had to find him, and if he wanted to do that, he had to pass through that barrier and get inside of the building, no matter what could happen.

Dante began to cross the line that delimited the safe part of the area with the not so safe part of the entry. …He expected to feel heat, pain, something that could alert him that he was crossing the barrier, but no, he felt nothing. His body didn't turn into ashes like the rock that the kid threw to the entry of the building to show him how dangerous that place was. …Pretty weird.

Once in front of the doors, still alive and kicking, Dante clapped his hands together and announced enthusiastically his next move;

"Well, time to kick some asses…!" He said with a hint of smugness while letting Trish open the doors.

"I thought you were pissed off?"

"…I am, but I don't wanna give him the pleasure of seein' me like that." He replied raising his arms and shrugging. "Too god for that~." Dante smirked and pointed at himself as he made a conceited pose.

"My, whatever."

Trish paid no mind at Dante's false mockery and made her way towards the entrance, but just when the demoness put her right hand on the door, there was a sound like that of flesh burning and splitting open. …It was the sound of the door, literally burning Trish's hand. She grimaced and withdrew her hand. The blonde looked at her hand, which although it was horribly burned, was beginning to heal bit by bit. She didn't expect that to happen, actually, since she didn't sense any kind of magical presence or something like that, and neither did Dante, because if something had to happen, it should have happened before, just when he was making his way towards the entrance of the building, protected by that barrier that now had disappeared.

"Woah, you okay?" He asked. "What the fuck was that?"

"Just a flesh wound." She replied downplaying the issue.

Dante raised an eyebrow and rested his right hand on the door, just like Trish did, but nothing happened. …He continued pushing his hand on the door, even he put his other hand on it, but nothing, nothing happened.

"What the fuck?" He asked to himself.

"It must be the invitation… I didn't get one, perhaps the door refused me because of that."

"...And to even think that I innocently thought that demons were dumb…" Dante said as he gave a humorless laugh, opening the doors slowly. "Meh, I don't care if they had improved their 'tricks', it won't stop us from finding him and kicking his ass, anyway~."

And as he stretched his arms with a carefree attitude, Dante made his way into the opera house, but just when he set his feet inside the building's floor, he realized that something was not quite alright. Wrinkling his nose, the hunter turned his head to confirm what he already knew beforehand: Trish was still outside, motionless, and before he could ask her why she was still there, Trish's honey-coated voice interrupted him;

"If my hand was burned just because I tried to open the door that leads to an event where I haven't been invited, what will happen if I try to get inside?" The blonde asked, raising an eyebrow. Dante opened his mouth in an attempt to reply her, but he was interrupted once again. "I can't go there, Dante. You'll have to look for him by yourself." She concluded as she grabbed a rectangular object from her pocket and tossed it to Dante.

The hunter caught it in mid-air, and when he saw what that object was, he scowled.

"What the fuck is this? A joke?" Dante asked when he saw what the object that Trish tossed to him was. "My mobile phone? Why the fuck is this going to help me here?"

"Let me tell you that unless you get inside a portal to the demon world, we can be able to contact each other by using this. It doesn't matter if that place is surrounded by seals and spells; those things are useless against human devices*."

"Interesting."

"You should carry it always with you; thank me that I knew you would forget it, Sherlock."

Dante looked at the cell phone for one last time and then he put it into his pocket.

"..."

"...Well?"

Dante faked a scowl. "I hate you when you act like my mother, you know."

Trish shook her head. "I will watch the surroundings."

* * *

…She trusted that kid. Nero was a good boy, a very faithful one -a bit quircky and pissy, too-, but she didn't trust Mundus, the demon lord that had sent him a secret letter whose contents couldn't be revealed. That demon, his messenger, the one that gave them those western envelopes, said that he would have a 'party' that couldn't be interrupted, and that couldn't be a good sign. No, of course it couldn't. Things that are kept as secrets aren't good. They never were.

She couldn't get inside the opera house, so she decided to look for Nero throughout the streets to make sure he was fine, until she finally found him making his way towards the north part of the island. The demoness, of course, followed him through his journey, silently. Trish was especially good at hiding her footsteps, able to suddenly be there without anyone noticing and leave in the same way, like a cat, making no sound. That fact made sure that Nero couldn't notice her presence.

Apparently, the platinum-haired boy arrived at a crossroads. Trish bent down and hid behind a pile of debris to avoid being seen, waiting for Nero to take one of the two ways.

"…What a moron… I told you to get away from here, that next time I wouldn't be as nice as I'd been before… but still, you're here. See? You're a moron."

…There was no need to turn around, because Trish already knew who was the one who said that. Her eyebrows began to twitch.

"…You show up everywhere, don't you?" She hissed with a fake smile, turning her head backwards to see the smiling face of Angelo, who was also hiding behind the ruins of a half-crumbled wall, for reasons unknown.

"Oh, my dear… You make me feel like some kind of unwanted pest."

"Uh, cause you kinda are."

"That's not really a nice thing to say."

"What are you doing here?"

"Can't you take a guess? Aren't you smart enough?"

Trish clicked her tongue.

"Yeah, I think I get it… Whatever you're doing, it's not good at all. You're on Mundus' side."

The young man frowned slightly, as if he didn't like what Trish had said, but his displeasure -or faux displeasure- didn't last for too long and his infamous smirk appeared once again.

"Ah? Is that what you think? Then go ahead, I guess that's not really a lie."

"Did you come here with the sole purpose of pissing me off me or maybe I caught you doing things that you shouldn't be doing?"

He shrugged. "Hmm, a bit of everything; truth be told, I was a little bored and I didn't exactly know what to do before the beginning of the 'celebrations', so I decided to stroll around the city for a little while before starting to do the dirty work. It seems that I'll have more fun than expected, that Mundus guy surely gives me interesting jobs…" Angelo chuckled. "…But now that I think about it, it's pretty weird to find you here all alone; I thought you were with that moronic half-breed. Aren't you always with him? So I don't know why you're still here."

Trish didn't answer, the only thing she did was glare at Angelo as she put her hands on her hips, trying to look dignified. The black haired man's smirk grew considerably because of her silence.

"No… Wait, I already know… I remember. It's because of Mundus, yeah? You aren't with him because he didn't let you come inside his 'party'. It's because you're a _persona non-grata_ for him. That's so sad." He leaned in close to her, too close for her liking. Then, he forcefully tilted her chin so she would look at him. "…Sad, for someone who was his bitch... Are the rumours true, then?"

That was it. That was all what she needed to hear to burst in anger. Trish summoned up all the power she could conjure and sent an enormous blast of electricity to him. The hand that tilted her chin disappeared and when the blue-eyed woman opened her eyes, there was no one in front of her.

"Ah, I hit a nerve? ... ...Maybe that's alright, it's very, very nice to meet a woman like you, with backbone, every once in a while. Getting you mad isn't really that bad?" Angelo had teleported away from her and now he was sitting elegantly on the edge of another half-crumbled wall. His annoying grin became even more annoying. "Either way, make sure to not make more mistakes, yes sweetheart?"

She could hear his irritating voice from behind of her. As she suddenly turned around towards the direction where his voice came from, Trish's right eye began to twitch uncontrollably. …Another blast of electricity was sent to him, but however, it never touched the black-haired young man; apparently, he disappeared before it could touch him. His cackles could still be heard from afar, but fortunately for Trish, he was already gone.

The blonde heaved a long sigh as she walked away from her hideout, but her peacefulness didn't last for too long. She noticed that there was no one in front of the crossroads, Nero wasn't there and she was the only one that remained in that place. When Trish realized what really happened, her eyebrows twitched once again.

"That son of a-!"

* * *

Even thought the façade of the building was still standing and in a very good condition, he had to admit that the interior of the opera house was one hell of a mess, but he paid no mind to it, he didn't care. When he got inside, the main doors closed suddenly and a design like a magic circle arranged around a scorpion appeared in the center. There was writing in Hebrew, and it was clear that it held some kind of meaning, but his knowledge about sorcery was a bit rusty, so he didn't know, and decided to ignore it.

"Seems like there's someone home…" He mumbled as he looked around.

That wasn't the strangest thing that happened in there, actually; he could care less about the seal, since he didn't plan on leaving that place. What bothered him the most was that weird scent. It was different any other kind of smell he'd smelt before: his sixth sense allowed him to perceive that something was different than usual. The scent came from the stage where his holiness last spoke before Dante 'killed' him. He turned his head slowly towards that direction and then, he saw him, sitting in an elegant chair with a face that denoted mockery.

"I was beginning to think that you backed out…" The stranger chuckled as he crossed his legs. "…But I see I was wrong, you finally came here."

"And I did it for nothin'." Dante grunted with dissatisfaction. "You guys really don't know how to throw a party."

The blonde man jumped from there and positioned himself in front of Dante. He smirked at him.

"I guess that you and I have a different vision of what a 'party' really is, but even so, you're pretty mistaken… We've got a whole theme park full of delights for you, only and exclusively for you! We even changed the reality of this place to make it better."

"Oh, how nice of you… That explains why everythin' 'round me looks so crappy." Without losing a second, Dante pulled Rebellion from his back and pointed it on the stranger's neck, who barely flinched. "I'll go straight to the point: where's Mundus?"

"What's the rush? Don't you want to have some fun?" He asked with mock confusion. "Parties exist for that sole purpose, you see? It's not good to act so violent, sonny."

Dante said playfully, grinning:

"Nah, this is not violence at all; violence is what I'll do to ya if I don't get my answer~."

"I told you, there's no need to hurry…! We don't want to have any accidents yet, right?" When he said that, the man disappeared and reappeared behind Dante, holding the half-devil's sword in his right hand. Dante didn't even realize that, and when he turned around and saw that that guy was pointing at him with his own sword, he was at a loss of what to do and say, but even so, he could react in time when his enemy tried to pierce his heart with Rebellion.

The half demon bent down quickly and kicked him in the stomach, and almost like he was a lightly dancing feather, the red-eyed man was knocked away and Rebellion fell from his grasp. Dante retrieved his sword immediately and dashed towards him with overwhelming speed. At that moment, it was him again the one who was pointing at that demon with his sword, showing an annoying grin of victory, but that didn't last for too long, because his enemy instantaneously got up from the floor and lunged at his neck, pinning him against the nearest wall without letting him breathe.

"how simple, yet sublime: I didn't expect you to react as fast as you did, but for naught. It's a shame I can't take care of you yet." The demon said as he began changing his appearance, gradually. He still looked like a human, dressed in a grey tunic that barely differed from his own skin color, but his hands and arms were too long for a human, and skinny, and his red eyes lacked of eyelids. …His real form was really, really grotesque.

"Y-You're so f-fucking –u-ugly…!" Dante said with difficulty, because he was still trying to catch his breath.

"I am a shape-shifter and my name is Oray. Remember me and fear me, Sparda." He said as he loosened his grip on his neck, letting him fall to the ground.

"Like I c-ca-" Dante couldn't finish his sentence, because something hit him on the head and he started to lose consciousness. After a few seconds of struggling, Dante could see no more.

* * *

It was already approaching 10 o'clock at night and he was already there, in front of the majestic, yet somewhat eerie Fortuna Castle, located in the north part of the island. Of course, he was alone there, he didn't want anyone to get in his way; after all, he liked things done his way, and his way only.

Nero looked again at the envelope that was handed to him. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, remembering what the contents of that letter were. Yeah, its message was short, but at the moment he read it, he remembered that his eyes grew sharp:

_'You're wasting your time; everything you do is utterly useless. You can't kill every single demon of Fortuna, you see? It's useless; they keep appearing as if you didn't do anything. No matter which other methods you use, you won't be able to stop him and the ritual. What? Haven't you realized the truth yet? That's too bad. You still don't remember anything, I see… I can't blame you, though, but that will change very soon. The 'key' that rests on Fortuna Castle will be 'removed' this night. …I guess you are probably already aware of this, but you don't have much time left, and in this game, the only possible outcome is either you all or me winning. If you run out of time, I will win. There will be no draw. Please, do not misunderstand that. With all that said, I guess the only thing I can do now is wait for you to come and stop me…'_

"…This is stupid, so fucking stupid…" Nero ranted as he crumpled the letter up and threw it on the ground. "Why don't you show up already? I'm already here! Isn't that what you wanted?!"

There wasn't any kind of immediate reply, but his outburst was soon blown away by a very hoarse and playful voice;

"…How nice… It's been a long time since I've been able to meet such a delightful human… Now that I think about it, it's also been an awful long time since I've gotten to play with a kid like you; don't disappoint me okay?"

That voice… Nero remembered that voice. He looked suddenly over his shoulders and he could get a glimpse of a man walking towards him at a rather steady pace. He wore a black vest and a pair of trousers of the same color with the Order of the Sword's insignia sewn into one side of them.

Nero closed his fists in an attempt to contain his anger. …That bastard…!

"Hoh? Why do you look at me like that? I didn't do anything wrong yet…" He smirked at him. "Are you still pissed off at me? Hmm, that face… that face that tells me that you aren't going to do anything good to me… You hate me, right?"

…He remembered him from that other time, and he knew that, even though he looked like a human, there was something wrong with him. The aura he felt from him was too powerful for a human. Nero reached for his revolver, Blue Rose, turned around and pointed at him without any trace of hesitation.

"You're damned right I do."

"That's nice… I wouldn't have it any other way, huh?"

"Don't fuck with me!"

"My bad."

When he said that, the black haired man chuckled and Nero scowled. Ah, how much he wanted to tear him into pieces right now…! He didn't hesitate any more; Nero replied him by firing two shots right past his skull, but Angelo didn't flinch; he actually expected that to happen. He smirked at Nero, who still wore an angered expression.

"I believe that your anger is quite fitting, and it's very, very honorable of you that even though you want to tear me into pieces you got a hold on yourself. You could have easily blown my head up or cut me in half with that beautiful katana of yours, but you didn't. Oh, how nice of you…"

He shot at him again, making sure that, this time, he would not fail again. Angelo knocked the bullets back with a crystal-like blade that he made appear quickly from nowhere. He cackled.

"Such impertinence… towards someone older than you."

"I don't fucking care who you are or why you're here, and I could care less if you were a member of the Order of the Sword or not." As he angrily spit out those words, his devil bringer began to glow slightly, making him feel a sharp pain in there. He visibly shivered and tried to cover his pain, which caught that man's attention. "You're just a demon that must be killed!" He yelled again. "You are the same shit as them, no better than the scum which lines my sword. I shall kill all of you, until there's none of you!" Nero grinned at him smugly. "…And just by looking at you, I think this won't last long."

He chuckled. "Straight to the point I see… Well, that's just fine; after all, I didn't make you come here for nothing. Please, allow me to formally invite you to this party! I'll welcome you fully…! Along with Dante, I'll play nicely with both of you!"

"Then, bring it on, asshole!"

* * *

**A/N: I'm truly sorry, but this chapter was meant to be this short... Mo~, don't worry; I'll try to do better with the next one~!**

***Richiamo: decoy. It's a chess tactic used to lure a piece to an unfavourable square.**

***That symbol with the scorpion drawn in it is The Fifth Pentacle of Mars. It's a symbol that repels demons, from the Lesser Key Of Solomon.**

***Inspired by Umineko and some other games. In Umineko, guns had this ability within them, the anti-magic toxin that was very powerful against demons and witches. And in Project Zero, you use a camera (a human device) to capture infernal spirits (or just random spirits...). While playing those games, I thought I could use the idea of human devices being powerful against demons.**

***Oray's name isn't as random as it may seem at a first glance. Oray, in demonology, is a great marquis of hell that causes great battles and disputes. He uses arrows as weapons. He also appears in the Lesser Key Of Solomon.**

**All in all, thanks for reading and reviewing! And I would also like to thank my beta Bitbyboth, for enduring the pain that is correcting my horrid writing :3 **


	6. Captura

**A/N: I promised it, didnt I? I told all of you that the next chapter would be longer than the previous one, and with certainty, this one is _pretty_ long. I do keep my promises, you see? ;A;**

**Blackpearly**: Eso es bueno saberlo~. Gracias por tu comentario y buen visto ^^

**Benifuku**: Ah, thanks for the feedback~ I don't get mad at people who try to correct me, so it's okay as long as the reviews are un-insulting and constructive. Lady will be here very soon, that's for sure. Maybe it will take me 3 or 4 chapters to make her appear again in this fic, because it would be too random for me to just make her pop from nowhere, but she will be here, of course. Again, thank you very much.

**Truthfulsoul**: Yeah, I know... it was a bit random. I couldn't help it, but I guess this chapter will redeem that fact. I'll keep what you said in mind, I'm sure it will help me to not mess the chapters so much. *le sigh*. Anyways, thanks for the review, I really apreciate it~!

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 6: Captura**

* * *

"…I'll have to admit it. Even though you look like a kid, you seem to fight like an adult; if I'm not careful, you might hurt me, but that's of no use if it doesn't come along with power. Did you know…? They say that someone who wants to rule this world needs influence, determination and… power. C'mon, who would fear a monarch that can't even defend himself?" Angelo showed him a twisted smirk as he spoke. …Yeah, it was very normal for him to give a history lesson while trying to beat someone to death.

"You talk too much, jackass! Aren't you gonna strike back yet?"

Angelo dodged skillfully, jumped back and avoided Nero's sword, Red Queen, but he still didn't strike back himself. Due to the fact his dodge was as rapid as the wind, Red Queen wasn't able to touch or pierce him. Amidst the sensation that his blood was boiling, Nero regained his offensive composure and began to use not only his sword, but his devil bringer as well. The teen began cornering Angelo towards the nearest wall using his demonic arm. Angelo's magnificent dodges looked flashy, but the devil bringer's power was enough to make him work harder to avoid all his punches. Nero just needed to corner him, and once cornered, he wouldn't be able to dodge anymore.

Nero knew the special qualities of his arm; after all, it was his, and he had used it a lot of times by now. He knew that it didn't let his opponent defend. Even if someone tried to block it with their own arm, that arm would receive direct damage and, if it hit the wrong way, it might even break the bone. So he cornered him, and with that arm, he would scrape off that demon who'd lost any way to escape.

"…What the…? Oh, when did…-?"

"Oh, what happened?" Nero interrupted with mock perplexity. "Did someone get cornered? Poor, poor thing." And faster than Angelo could blink, he hit him.

The black haired man blocked Nero's lunged fist with his arm. He tried to act as though it was no big deal, but it must have hurt a lot. The teen grinned and Angelo smiled the same way, but twitched slightly.

"…I see. This certainly does hurt."

"Here's my last bit of advice. Cry and apologize."

"_scusa_, but I can't do that. It would ruin my image, you see?"

"Then just crumble!"

Nero lunged at him again, but his fist wasn't buried into Angelo. There was a resistance that seemed too hard and the sound of breaking stone startled Nero. …Of course, the young boy didn't see him teleport, so he didn't see him appear behind him either, delivering a powerful kick to his back. Nero smashed his head on the wall and fell to the ground, but he quickly recovered and turned around to see Angelo's smirking face.

"I am, after all, not a human. You even said it yourself, remember?" He snorted. "That level of magic is nothing for me, but even so, you aren't bad at all. If I were a human, I would probably resign right here, but because I'm not, I can still continue to fight."

Nero readied himself for another attack and was able to dodge two glowing blue spears that struck to the ground and shattered like crystal, but he couldn't react in time when the man teleported in front of him. …Right side of the head. Below the right armpit. Side of the right knee; as Angelo danced and spun like a small cyclone, he kept hitting him, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, with successive roundhouse kicks. The fourth one became a sweep, cutting Nero's feet out from under him and making him fall down.

The grey-eyed man looked down on Nero, sneering. The merciless rain beat down on him, so that it looked as though even the heavens were mocking him… The teen could feel the demon inside him boiling over, he could feel the anger and rage, but he couldn't trigger his demonic arm…

"Shit…!" He cursed under his breath.

"Now, now, stand up, okay? I know you can do better than that!"

Nero jumped to his feet, grabbing Red Queen from the ground and placing it over his back.

…Then, at that time, he became temporary blind... Blind? …No… That couldn't be...

"…N…No… Th…This is…"

The thing blocking Angelo's vision was the bottom of Nero's boot.

"Better than that?" He grinned. "Like this?"

It had stopped right in front of the tip of his nose, but when Angelo tried to jump back, it was too late. …There was a horrible sound like that of bones breaking; his nasal bone was fractured.

Nero glared at him and before Angelo could say something, the young devil hunter pointed at his torn up clothes. "And that's how you treat your guests? THIS one was expensive." Angelo gritted his teeth, but once again, before he could say something, Nero interrupted him, now pointing at him with his index finger. "There's no way I'm paying it; you owe me a new coat."

"…Y…You…." He said with a low, threatening voice as he covered his nose with his hands, trying to put that bone in the correct place.

"Hey, chill out pal. It was your fault, after all; you should have known by now that I don't do nice with losers like you. …By the way… isn't it about time?" He grinned. "For you to fight back?"

"Q-Quit prattling, foolish boy…!"

Nero dashed towards him and, because he was persistent, he was able to capture Angelo a second time… He dashed and headed for Angelo's back. Then, he dodged a summoned spear and again headed for Angelo's back… Again and again, he moved from one point to another, confusing his foe.

…At that time, a dull tearing sound was mixed in with his cry of anguish. Angelo's reaction to the dance of the blue trail of Nero's devil bringer which pressed upon him had finally been too slow. A single wound slowed his actions a little. That caused a new wound, which slowed his actions again… Of course, Nero took advantage of his sluggishness and, with all his strength, he punched him in the gut, making him to fall down.

As he wiped the traces of blood that remained in his mouth, Angelo began to stand up again. "This guy's…stronger than me… at close range…?" He muttered with incredulity. "Need distance…!"

When he reincorporated, he began to jump backwards to grab a large distance. He jumped and jumped and leapt and even flipped in midair, increasing the distance between them. It should have been magnificent, but for some reason, it was very similar to the movements of a small, scared animal. When he magnificently landed and tried to summon spears, he was knocked away by Nero once again. The kid punched Angelo in the ribs. He felt three of them shatter under the force and, amidst of the pain, he thought that that pain was the same one that that blonde bitch felt when he tried to 'capture' her.

Of course, he fell down, squirming in pain. He would probably get back up eventually, but it looked like it would be hard for him to return to the battle for a while.

"Heh, nice…" Angelo gave a humorless laugh as a strand of blood dangled from his mouth, making him look even more pitiful. "It seems that your skills have improved since the last time we met."

"…Or rather, it looks like you suck at playing these kind of games. Is that all you have to offer me?" He grinned. "What a letdown."

"Ah, to even think that you're still relaxed enough to speak with such insolence at a time like this…! Die!"

A glowing blue sword appeared and he caught it in midair. He got up quickly and dashed towards Nero. The sword Angelo swung was trailed by a cyan light. Because of the damage that he received, his movements were erratic, but he was still very fast. …If his enemy was stronger than him, the only thing he had to do to finish him off was be faster than him. It didn't matter how powerful someone was if they couldn't defend themselves!

Nero covered himself against the sword with his demonic arm. …Even though the magic blade should have cut the flesh like butter, his arm, with its extremely high demonic energy, was able to block the sword easily. When the blade and Nero's arm made contact, there was a flashing blue shockwave that exploded from his devil bringer, which made them both fall to the ground. Angelo quickly twisted and recovered, facing Nero once again.

"There you are…!"

When he saw that blue spectral demon manifest behind Nero, wielding Yamato, Angelo smirked slightly, but deep down, he was irritated because Nero hadn't suffered any single fatal wound yet. …And it was fun at the beginning, but now he knew he was running out of time…

Nero dashed towards him again, and the blue spectral form of his arm motioned its katana towards his chest to finish him off, once and for all. The younger devil hunter was planning on bringing him down with a single strike, Angelo could tell, so he also aimed for a single strike, because if he let that chance slide, he would be killed. Angelo cautiously calculated his next move, but even as he did, Nero closed the gap between them…

"Daaammiiiiiiiiiit!"

…But it was too late for him to try to escape. Yamato's spectral form pierced him straight in the heart, making him unable to even reach the ground with his feet, horribly exposed like a pitiful pinned butterfly, tormented by the wind and rain…

"Seems like you aren't so powerful after all." Nero's demonic voice said as he maintained his devil trigger activated. "In the end, this didn't last too long, as I expected." He grinned mischievously, twisting Yamato's spectral hilt, causing Angelo to cry out in pain. "I didn't even break a sweat."

"…K-Ku… Khihahaha…!" Angelo wore a bitter smile of false courage, and his face, dirtied by the rain and blood, made him look even more pitiful. "…How nice…, ahahaha… You caught me…~"

"Told ya, ugly: I eat fuckers like you for dinner."

He began to laugh weakly, but his cackles soon turned into a painful cough. "How crude… Should I praise your name for having defeated me? I wonder…"

"…"

"But that's not enough for you, right? After all, you don't give a shit about demonic acknowledgement, and doing that would be of no use… Yeah, I know… Maybe I should tell you what happened in the day your arm changed…? That would be better, yes? …Tell me, do you remember? You don't...?"

Nero thought that he was only out of his mind, that he was at the doors of the death, so he didn't answer him… but when he mentioned his arm at some point of his endless rambling, the younger hunter tensed slightly and noticed that even though his facial expression was twisted in pain, his lips were twitching slightly… Was he… Smiling…?

And suddenly, Angelo's eyes snapped open and his eerie smile widened considerably. Nero backed off, slightly surprised by Angelo's mood swing.

"Can't your arms sense those things behind yoooou?"

"What the-?"

…Then, suddenly, Nero felt a searing pain in different parts of his body: in his legs, in his gut and also in his shoulders. A strand of blood dripped from his mouth.

"…What… …What the…?"

His gaze dropped, and he could see that blue glowing spears pierced the areas where he felt that horrible pain. His devil trigger disappeared, bursting in thousands of shinning crystals, making a horrible cracking sound in the process. At that moment, Angelo was released by the spectral form of his devil trigger and finally landed on his feet. He looked at his wounds, which were healing bit by bit, and then he looked at Nero, who clumsily fell to the ground, bleeding and gasping for air.

"Oh, what a mess..."

"Q…Quit… F…Fucking…, around… Not yet… This…. This isn't over… yet…" Nero managed to say, but his voice was very weak, and he doubted he could stay conscious for too much longer.

"Don't worry, it's alright… There's nothing you can do, everything is settled…!" He let out a shrill laugh.

He was losing too much blood, and his wound weren't healing. That… couldn't… be good… Nero tried to stand up, but he couldn't. He drifted in out of consciousness until he finally lost consciousness…

"It was fun fighting with you, kid… but you play with words a little too much. You were soooooo naïve! Hey, hey, Raum, what do you think? You were watching, right?"

Angelo faced upwards. The falling rain and the roars of thunder didn't seem to answer him, but he could see it, he could feel her presence. …Suddenly, a crow-shaped demon appeared from the cloudy skies. It flew elegantly, and landed on the ground, in front of Angelo. Then, a purple aura appeared behind it, and in a blink of an eye, a young girl with a black hair and red eyes materialized. She looked like she was twelve, since she was fairly short, and she had a demure appearance; lily-white skin that shined with an almost sickly appearance as though she had some sort of disease, with long black hair that cascaded down her back. Her bangs were cut straight across her face, casting dark black shadows over her dim red eyes.

"It was a really easy fight, wasn't it?" Her monotonous voice didn't match her appearance. She sounded too much like an adult, considering her height and looks.

"Easy fight? Easy fight? You fool, it was a difficult victory! If I hadn't tricked him with the divine spears; I would have been the one to die!" He yelled.

"I see… no need to be so harsh, anyway." She looked at Nero with dim, emotionless eyes. "Don't you think you overdid it a little too much? It looks kinda messy."

He followed Raum's gaze, and he realized that she was kind of right, since the floor was brutally decorated by Nero's blood… And also by his own blood. Yeah, that scenario was a little too filthy and undignified.

"Now, now, since when do you care about these kinds of things? Aren't you supposed to be a demoness? I'm sure this is nothing for you."

She shrugged. "…Perhaps you're right."

Raum snapped her fingers and, when she did that, small glowing blue spheres gathered around the skewered Nero, and began to swarm around his arm. Like butterflies sucking the nectar out of flowers, they began to suck the demonic power out of Nero, and it seemed that it caused him intense pain. A cry of anguish issued from Nero's mouth.

"…So, the 'key' is already being extracted." Angelo began to say. "That means that the preparations are almost completed, right?"

The small girl nodded. "Oray wants you to come to the Opera House. It seems that it's time for you to keep your promise. Both of you will switch places. I will stay outside. I know that that blonde 'thing' isn't very clever, but she is still a burden."

Angelo chuckled and made a cordial bow to her. "I will not disappoint." He said, and then, he disappeared.

* * *

_The number you have called is busy at this moment. Please try again later._

"Bitch!"

Trish put the mobile phone inside her pocket again. She scowled. The blonde had called him not two, but three times, and he still didn't reply. She had no idea what was taking him so long in reply her calls, but she decided to pay no mind to that, since she was already approaching her destination. Certainly, she had the feeling that she's been in all of Fortuna's locations already, but the only place that she hadn't visited was Fortuna Castle. Since there was no trace of Nero in the other places where she had been, she assumed that the castle was, without doubt, the area where Nero had been called.

She continued to slowly trudge through the snow, making her way towards a bridge that was the only connection between the mountains and Fortuna Castle. As she walked slowly towards there, she noticed that something… was off. The blonde covered her nose, feeling disgusted. What was that smell…? No, she knew what that alluring smell was, after all, it was pretty familiar to her; she always scented that kind of smell when she was in a mission but… right now, it made her feel different… Dante could call her a human as much as he liked, but she was still a full demon, and blood, especially human, was a very intoxicating thing for her. Just the smell of that blood made her feel… aroused, in a twisted kind of way. It pissed her off and made her vulnerable, and she didn't like that.

She quickened her pace until she was in front of the majestic castle. The smell was still annoying her, though. She stared in the direction where the smell came from, and she saw a large trail of blood. Her gaze followed that trail until she saw it.

In front of her, there was a strange lump. A lump with spikes... ...

"Fuck… Oh fuck…, Oh fuck!"

Nero was lying on the ground. His body was completely pierced by summoned spears, like a pincushion doll. She dashed towards him. Trish looked for his pulse on his neck and, fortunately, he was still breathing, even though he was badly injured.

She knew that if he continued to bleed like that, he will surely die, but she didn't know how to stop it. The blue-eyed woman didn't have a clue about first aid; after all, she was a demon, so she didn't need to know all that. It wasn't necessary. Right now, she was asking herself if she should remove the spears or if she should leave them there. Maybe, if she did such a thing, Nero would bleed more than he already was… but if she didn't do that, she wouldn't be able to drag him with her. She wondered and wondered until she made up her mind. He had the ability of fast healing after all, so it wouldn't be that bad to remove those things from his body, right…? Right…? Actually, it would be better; that way, he would stop bleeding and his wounds would finally heal… or at least, that was what she thought.

She took a hold on one of the spears and began to pull it out from his body slowly. Every time she did that, she could hear faint gasps and guttural growls from him. Of course, that must be very painful for him. She would pull, he would heal in a very slow motion and she would pull again, until she removed the last spear that pierced his damaged body.

Every single lance that was removed from him broke and burst in millions of tiny glowing crystals. Some of them cut Trish's hands, but she paid no mind to it. After all, that didn't even tickle her, and those little wounds healed instantly.

…Unfortunately, that wasn't Nero's case.

Trish noticed. His wounds were horribly sore and tender, and they were healing very slowly, too slowly for her liking. Of course, since her knowledge concerning first aid was very close to zero and she didn't know how to stop the bleeding, she decided to grab him and throw him onto her back to take him to the refuge, where there would be someone who possibly could help him, but when she was going to do that, she noticed something.

…It was a white paper, perhaps a letter, and it hung from one of the pockets of Nero's trousers. She frowned as she grabbed that piece of paper and when she had it in her hands, she opened it quickly, because she knew that she couldn't lose too much time considering Nero's state.

Inside the letter, there was a white paper with a short message written in it:

Praise my name.

…And that was all. It didn't say anything more. Trish snorted, putted the paper inside the western envelope again and then, once finished, the demoness put the letter inside the pocket of her black-leather trousers. Damn; she lost precious time for nothing.

Shaking her head, Trish finally grabbed him and threw him onto her back. He growled, but that was all. …Of course, it was only natural.

She really needed to be fast at that moment if she didn't want him to bleed to death.

* * *

"When I arrived, he was already like this. I don't know who or what did this to him."

"Nero…"

Nero was lying on a bed, covered by the bedding. He had a handkerchief soaked in water on his head that Kyrie used to try to lessen his fever. Trish removed it and put her free hand, the one that wasn't gripping the western envelope, to his forehead. The blonde let out a string of frustrated curses at the feel of his burning, sweaty skin.

"…My, my; this one is a nasty fever…" She said as she bit her lip with worry.

"Should we call a doctor?"

"He isn't a human, so it would be of no use, hun."

Kyrie heaved a sigh and sat in a wooden chair next to the younger demon hunter. Trish speedily wet the handkerchief with the herb-infused water from the bowl on the nightstand. Pressing it to his brow, she shook her head with disbelief; mouth cracked and chapped, and face twisted with pain, he muttered incoherent things in his sleep. His wounds weren't completely healed yet; they were still very sore and tender… A wrong movement and she was sure they would rip open again.

"…Ngh… Ngh gah…"

Nero's weak gasps made Trish and Kyrie to jump in surprise. Apparently, he had regained consciousness, or at least, half of it. As Trish pulled her hand away from his forehead, Nero began to slowly open his eyes.

"…Ngh, damn it…" He groaned. The light… there was too much light in the room… but even so, he forced his eyes open a little more to let them adjust. He had to. Then, he tried to sit up, even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to.

"Nero, stop." Kyrie's voice said, coming from near him.

…Maybe he should have listened to her, because when he tried to sit up, he felt a sharp pain in his whole body. He instantly fell back against the bed, groaning. His eyes clamped shut again, and everything became black. At that moment, as though he was slowly sinking into a pitch black sea, he began to remember what caused those horrible wounds to appear in his body. It was a bizarre experience… like crossing over the boundary of sleep while still conscious. …Fragments of memories concerning the fight between him and that bastard ran through his mind, and then, he remembered, but just the fact of thinking about what happened with that black-haired demon in that place made Nero feel pain in his devil bringer as though it was being pierced by long, thin, hard needles, but he was too tired to even care about that. He only ignored it.

"Kyrie?" Nero said hazily as he tried to reach a hand out to her.

Kyrie took a hold of Nero's outstretched hand. "How are you feeling?"

"…I… feel like shit…" Nero replied with a strained voice. "…Somehow, I feel like I'm becoming something that isn't myself… …I have the feeling that there's someone inside me, someone that is going to swallow me up…!"

Of course, he was out of his mind because of the fever. He shook uncontrollably and was sweating a lot. It was a very, very pitiful sight.

"…Ngh… No matter what…, don't move your hand away… Even if I fall asleep, don't… move… your hand… a-away…"

Nero seemed to finally calm down and shut his eyes again. Kyrie and Trish exchanged discomforted looks.

"…That was weird, wasn't it?" Trish said.

Kyrie didn't answer; she only heaved a sigh as she looked at the platinum-haired boy that lay on the bed by her side, squeezing his hand more tightly than before, as promised.

…She had thought it might be alright to let go pretty soon, but she faithfully continued to hold his hand. Every once in a while, her hands would get tired, and she would switch between her right and her left, but even so, as promised, she didn't let go of his hand.

Meanwhile, Trish noticed that the letter that she found next to Nero's body, the letter that she had been gripping the whole time in her right hand and which at that time was soaked with her sweat, actually had two sheets. The paper had been tightly stuck together, so she had mistakenly thought that there was only one sheet. There were no characters on the second sheet. The thing that was drawn there was a creepy magic circle, written with a red ink like blood. That strange pattern definitely had some meaning related with the occult. She wanted to know what that could be, what kind of meaning could that thing have… She though that, maybe, it didn't have any kind of meaning, that that bastard was only messing with her, but… Argh, damn it…!

* * *

"…Ngh…"

Nero awoke from his doze. …Had it been a very deep sleep? Maybe he was still dreaming? His mind was vague and he wasn't thinking clearly.

Where was he…? It looked like some kind of mansion, but he wasn't sure. He could see a room that looked like a library. The smell of old books confirmed it. There was also a chessboard in front of him, an earth globe placed in a small wooden desk in a corner of that room and some kind of a fancy chandelier, also placed in that desk, next to the globe. Nero rose up from his seat clumsily, and looked at his surrounding a little more closely. He could be able to see someone, a male, in front of one of the bookshelves, reading an old book. The man didn't seem to be bothered by Nero's presence.

He narrowed his eyes and walked towards him. "Hey, you!" He called out, trying to catch that man's attention. "Where the fuck am I? What the hell is all this about?" He demanded, feeling slightly disturbed at what had happened and at what was happening. He remembered the fight he had with that other man, he remembered how it ended and he also remembered that, a few moments ago, he was with Kyrie and the old man's partner at the refugee, feeling as though he was going to die, drifting in out of consciousness.

Because he could remember, he knew that this was nothing more than a dream, maybe a nightmare, caused by the fever. Normally, when someone remembered that they were dreaming, then, that someone would wake up, almost unconsciously; but Nero couldn't do that… He was still there, even though he knew that that place and that man were only illusions and that he shouldn't be there.

For Nero's surprise, the man closed the book he was reading and placed it on the bookshelf. Then, he slowly turned backwards and faced him. Nero backed off when he saw that man's face… He was him: he had his same facial structure, his hair color, his demonic arm… but his eyes were red, unlike his, which were blue, like the sky, and he also looked a bit older than him. Those were the only differences between them, and even though Nero knew that all that was an illusion, that it was just a dream, he couldn't help but feel a little disturbed… and annoyed.

The other man who was in front of him smirked at him mischievously. "How nice… I'm glad I got to meet you once at the end." He said.

"Who the fuck are you? And why am I here?" Nero asked as he glared at him.

"Hoh… Why are you asking? Don't you remember? I am you." He replied, presenting himself by doing a theatrical gesture with his hands. "Since that moment, you were able to hear me, right? But, unfortunately, you couldn't see me. …Have you forgotten? Disappointing."

"…?"

…Power…, give me more power!

…The voice echoed in his mind and, almost unconsciously, Nero looked at his demonic arm with a frown. Could he really be…?

"That's right." He smirked. "I told you. I am a part of you; I am the entity that commands that demonic arm you hate so much…" He chuckled. "Yeah, I am 'that thing', and since I know a lot of things about you, and since you gave me the power I needed to finally awaken, I though that, in exchange for that, I could let you hear something good. You're not here for nothing, you see?"

…At first, he didn't have that burden of an arm; he didn't have 'that thing' with him since the very beginning… He always remembered the days when he was younger, when both of his arms were still human, but little by little, those days became nothing more than fog and noise, and he knew that from that day forth, he would have to bear with that curse, no matter what.

At some point, that thing managed to disturb Kyrie, but that was only natural, due to its obviously demonic nature, and even though the devil bringer was an awesome 'weapon', if you could call it that, Nero couldn't help but hate it…

…And being able to talk with that entity didn't help things to get better, though… His sick grin, his red glowing eyes, the way he talked to him, the fact that he looked like an exact replica of him… That only made him feel more disturbed and pissed off than he already felt.

"…Sorry, but I don't feel like listening." He finally replied as he turned backwards, but even if he moved away from him, Nero wouldn't be released from that strange place until that man was happy.

He realized that a little too late.

"Hey, hey… There's no need to square off like that; I just brought you here to resolve your misunderstanding. …No, that's not quite it. I'm here to inform you about the lie your dear Kyrie told you."

Nero blinked and frowned in confusion as he looked at that man over his shoulder.

"…What…?"

"Do you remember that red notebook that you found in Agnus' laboratory? Kyrie was the one who read it, right? Because you didn't feel like reading the delusions of a demented alchemist… Am I right?"

Nero felt shivers run to his spine as he remembered the place where he found that thing. In that creepy laboratory, Nero found lots and lots of dissected demonic bodies and several organs that were inside of jars with formalin. In fact, the entire room reeked of formaldehyde and antiseptic. There were also lots of books of spells and black sorcery, possibly used by Agnus to create some demons. Alongside all that, there was a notebook where Agnus' memos were written. The scientist wrote with scrupulous order each of the steps he had taken to get what he wanted. Nero simply decided to not read it, so it was Kyrie who did instead.

He never knew what was written there, and since Kyrie didn't tell him anything important about that, he decided to pay no mind to it.

"…Who knows? I don't feel like talking to your ugly face, anyway."

He chuckled lightly. "…My, your point is harsh as always. …In a way, Kyrie didn't actually 'lie' to you. In fact, a lot of things written there were mostly bullshit."

"Then there's no problem."

"…Seriously? …That notebook was full of shit, that's four sure, but she still deceived you by not telling you about the good, interesting things written there."

"…How are you saying I was deceived?" Nero asked with a hint of anger as he turned to face him.

Tsk! Damn, damn! He was letting him take the initiative…! But he won't be released until he lent an ear to his story, so it was something he will have to hear, anyways…

Even though he had the feeling that he was falling into a trap, he urged him forwards.

"…Tell me, Nero. What happened that day in Mitis Forest?" The red-eyed man asked.

"…I received an injury to my shoulder. And?" He put his arms over his chest, trying to protect his still intact bravado.

"Right… You were injured. And… Do you remember who was with you when that happened?"

Nero's gaze dropped. He didn't remember too much about that day… There was Kyrie, Credo, a lot of high-ranked holy knights and… The alchemist of the order, Agnus.

…Wasn't he… writing something as he tried to heal him…?

After watching to see that Nero remembered, the older man laughed unpleasantly and spoke;

"Hey, you. On the day your arm changed, what did Agnus write in that notebook?"

"…"

Even thought he didn't understand what he was saying, Nero noticed an unpleasant sweat seeping out all over his face…

Aah, he didn't get it. What was… this jackass saying…?

"See? Not everything in that notebook was useless. …At first, you didn't have to bear with me, right? Why did that thing appear on your arm all of sudden? Was it really only a coincidence?" He made his way towards the chessboard and sat in the chair in front of it. With a small smirk, he grabbed one of the white pawns and began to toy with it. "We're one, yet many, and for them, we're only tools for sorcery. …After all, we were created for that sole purpose, to give them the power they wanted." He threw the pawn away from his sight, sighing with anger. "Damn him and his incompetent level of magic. No wonder it ended like that, considering that at the time he didn't even know about the endless rules. How shameful."

…Huh…? W-what the fuck-?

"Don't try to play mind games with me! I've had a really bad day, pal, and you're pissing me off a little too much for my liking!" He yelled. "I know with certainty who I am, and I'm seriously losing my patience with all this bullshit!"

The older man openly sneered at Nero's hate-filled face. "Is that so?" He chuckled. "My, it seems that I'm completely despised, eh? You hate everything to do with me, after all I did for you. …Okay, that settles it. If you don't believe me, why don't I show you that truth you want to deny so much? That would be nice, right?"

He grinned, snapped his fingers and then, suddenly, everything around Nero disappeared. The man's laughter still echoed in his head as he tried to figure out where he was. He looked at his surroundings, confused, but he didn't see anything. It was like he was in some kind of parallel world, but soon, Nero's awareness returned to normal, and he realized that he wasn't in that world anymore: surprisingly, he found himself lying in a bed, his body completely covered by sweat.

"…Huh?" The teen blinked, realization slowly starting to sink in as he sat up in his bed. When he did , he winced in pain, causing him to take note of the bandages wrapped around him. The memory of being impaled seared in his mind, and he shuddered. Then, gingerly climbing from the bed, he silently made his way to the bathroom as he shook his head and stifled a yawn, trying to ignore the discommodity that his half-healed wounds caused him and also the weirdness of that dream.

Upon entering the room, he turned on the light and he saw himself in the mirror. He sighed loudly. "Meh, forget it; I'm not gonna read that thing just because a weirdo imaginary guy that looks like me told me so." The teen snorted. "I would be losing it if I actually do that."

…But then, just when he said that, a searing pain shot through his Devil Bringer, causing Nero to drop to his knees.

"Alright, ALRIGHT!" He shouted as he clutched his arm tightly to his chest. "I'll do it, I'll do it!"

The pain began to subside slowly as Nero jumped to his feet clumsily. He ran a hand through his silver locks and dashed out of the bathroom. Everyone seemed to be asleep, so no one heard Nero when he left.

* * *

"…Ah…Uh… Dammit…"

Dante regained consciousness bit by bit, and the first thing he thought was that it would have been better if he hadn't. After all, with his body this cold and hurting, it became more painful the more his consciousness returned. It felt like he had been sleeping on an ice-cold marble in the darkness, lying face-down for a long time.

"Fuck… Maybe that punk kid is right and I'm getting too old for this kind of thing…" He began to say to himself, but quickly changed his mind. "Ha! Bullshit! I'm not going to give him that pleasure!"

He jumped to his feet and picked up the mobile phone that was inside the pocket of his black trousers. He dialed Trish's phone number, but she didn't reply him.

_The number you have called is busy at this moment. Please try again later._

…Wasn't that thing supposed to be able to work even though he was in a place full of defensive spells and those kinds of shit? …Now that he looked at the cell phone, he realized that Trish also tried to communicate with him. He guessed that it was during his state of unconsciousness. He tried to call her again, but when he did so, the coverage died. Now he was slightly surprised.

"Yeah, sure… It's supper effective against seals and spells."

As he sighed, he put the phone inside of his pocket again and looked around. He wasn't in the Opera house, or at least, that's what he thought; he didn't remember seeing that scenario inside that building before, so he probably wasn't in the opera house anymore. That also surprised him slightly. He thought the place where he was at that moment was a pitch black, but it wasn't. After all, he could see his own body… more or less. …Without doubt, there was some source of light, but even if he looked at the ceiling, he couldn't see a proper light. It was almost as though Dante had been abandoned in a forgotten world.

…Amidst the sepulchral silence, he could be able to hear footsteps coming towards him. They were heavy footsteps, so he thought it was probably an adult or a demon. …But his heightened senses didn't notice any kind of demonic aura… Wondering who in the world would be in a darkness like this, he stared in the direction he could hear the footsteps from. As he did, a faint approaching silhouette came into view.

"How have you been, Dante?"

His heart flipped from his chest when he recognized that voice.

Then, the man that spoke to him snapped his fingers and the room where he was at that moment lit up. At that moment, Dante realized that he was inside of a circular room that looked like a parlor. In the middle of the room, there was an end table, and on top of that furniture, there was a beautiful vase with white roses in it.

"Isn't this nice? Those demons really know what they're doing. We're still inside that messy and ruined cathedral, but it doesn't seem like it, right?" He sat down on a blue chair that appeared behind him at the moment he snapped his fingers. Then, he smiled at him mischievously. "It's kind of funny; Fortuna, the island that considered Sparda as a God and whose villagers tried to erase demons of this world, now is a demon island, detached from common sense… and reality. At this moment, right now, nothing in this place is what appears to be. It's ironical, don't you think?"

_"I guess that you and I have a different vision of what a 'party' really is, but even so, you're pretty mistaken… We've got a whole theme park full of delights for you, only and exclusively for you! We've even changed the reality of this place to make it better for you."_

Dante shook his head, erasing his thoughts and turning back to reality. "What are you doing here?" He growled. Dante's facial expression became more distressed, which made Angelo chuckle, completely pleased.

"Don't be angry!" He said while laughing. "I was just joking. Now, why don't you take a seat?"

He snapped his fingers once again, and another blue chair appeared in front of Dante. The half demon kicked the chair away from him, making it to collide against a wall next to Angelo.

"What are you playing…? Are you dumb or something? Are you still letting Mundus to control you? You moron! Why don't you wake up already? If he still controls you, no problem; I will open your eyes, no matter what!"

Dante walked towards him with a steady pace and grabbed him by the collar of his vest. When he did, Angelo cackled, amused by his behavior. Apparently, that made Dante lose his temper, so he pushed him forcefully, making him fall to the ground.

"It's kind of funny… You certainly look pissed off but- no, no… that's not quite it; you actually are pissed off with me, but still, you hadn't tried to kill me yet, even though you have the power to do so." He said as he stood up, looking at Dante in the eyes.

"What?" Dante muttered, confused, backing off slightly.

"Don't pretend to be innocent. That's why you are here, right? To kill me, to kill every single demon in this island until there's none of us left."

"Idiot!" Dante yelled as he grabbed him by the collar once again. "Do you know what you're saying? Do you know what I felt when-?"

"Don't change the subject." Angelo interrupted with a sharp tone of voice, making Dante to let go of him. "You act like you're a good person, as if you were a fully human when you aren't." He showed him a cruel smirk. "But you know that's a lie, you're the same as them; don't misunderstand, don't get you're hopes too high: no one would like to be with you if they really knew what you truly are."

"Shut up! What's wrong with you? You're not like this, I know you! It's Mundus the one who's making you say all this." Dante said with doubtfulness, waiting for Angelo to agree with him, but the black-haired man only let out a shrill laugh.

"Don't deceive yourself; you know nothing about me, you don't know me, you're misunderstanding, Mundus doesn't control me."

"Liar!"

"Who do you think you are, talking to me as if I was one of your friends? You're such a foolish child…"

…A bullet pierced Angelo's shoulder, making him wince slightly in pain. He covered the injured area with his hand and glared at Dante at the same time the devil hunter shot at him again. However, at that moment, he was able to dodge those bullets, and before any of those projectiles could pierce his body, the black-haired young man teleported at Dante's back. The half-demon, instinctively, swung his arm behind him and grabbed Angelo by the collar. Then, he threw him forcefully against a wall, making him to smash his head on the wall. Before Angelo could recover, Dante dashed towards him and grabbed him by the neck. As Dante squeezed it tightly, Angelo's smirk began to fade slowly, and his facial expression showed pain, a lot of pain, and he began to feel that he was running out of air. When he started to feel dizzy, the grey-eyed man kicked Dante in the gut, making him to let go of him.

With a gesture that you couldn't call elegant, Angelo landed on the floor, gasping for air. While he still tried to regain his breath, he looked frantically for something that was inside the pocket of his black trousers. Dante walked towards him and pointed him with Ebony while Angelo picked up a small piece of blue chalk from his pocket.

"If you don't want to listen, then I will have to knock some sense into you, like it or not. I'm in a rush, and I would like to know where that bastard is." The half demon snorted. "You know it, right? Tell me, and then, we will fight or talk, whatever you want."

He chuckled as he moved his right hand frantically, as if he was drawing something on the floor with the chalk. "I've heard a lot of funny and moronic things in my life, but this one is really, really priceless; I'm not stupid, I'm not going to get myself killed or tricked by a lowly half-breed."

Before Dante could say something more, Angelo stopped moving his hand and quickly putted the chalk inside the pocket of his trousers. Then, Dante noticed that there was a fancy magic circle drawn in front of him that, suddenly, began to glow intensely with Angelo at the centre and, when he slapped his fingers, a portal to the demon world appeared behind him.

"I'm truly sorry for leaving things like this," He began to say as he stood up "but I have to go; there are some things that the master of this 'game' should know."

"Ah, no; you aren't going anywhere!"

At the moment Angelo was being swallowed by the portal, Dante dashed and launched towards him, and both of them crossed the gate to the demon world.

* * *

"…W-What the fuck does this mean…?" He exclaimed incredulously, stammering. "Why is this… written… here…? It's not possible… No…, it can't be…"

Inside a small, ruined apartment where the blood and dust still remained, Nero read with disbelief that red notebook. He was sitting on wooden a desk, placed inside a very small and messy room. …The library, a place where Credo spent hours and hours reading and writing 'things' that he still didn't know, was full of bookshelves and encyclopedias. Kyrie's brother, since the beginning, had always owned a vast book collection. Compared with the library of the order, Credo's library was the only place where proper books were stored.

They were all thick, like complete encyclopedias for the intellectuals, and Kyrie thought that that was a very convenient place to hide something as important as that notebook. Of course, there were so many books that no one would even think to look there.

"I told you, didn't I? I wasn't lying." That man, the entity that only Nero was able to see, was leaning against a wall in front of him, sneering at him with superiority. "You're the same as me; we are abominations, illusions, replacements, incomplete things. In other words, tools for sorcery."

_…Huh? …Huh? Who…Am I? …Huh?_

"…Why…?" Was the only word to barely escape Nero's lips.

"…Ah, you really are stupid: in order for the Savior to be activated, Sanctus needed someone with the blood of Sparda and Sparda's ancient sword, Force Edge, to control it. That explains why he wanted to capture Dante, right?" He chuckled. "…But he also needed something more to accomplish his plan: If he wanted to open the true Hell Gate, he needed the Yamato, a sword that was broken until you showed up. How convenient, don't you think?"

"What does… all this mean…?" Nero asked, completely awestruck.

"Why did you get all those powers all of sudden? Why are you related to Sparda even though you only have that freakish arm to prove it? Everything written in that notebook is true, like it or not: Sanctus needed Yamato and Sparda's blood and powers, so the Order used the ascension ceremony to achieve those things; that ritual, created by the Order of the Sword in order to revive the dead, was developed by Agnus thanks to the research of the Hell Gates and black sorcery" He pointed at the notebook Nero was holding "…and thanks to the 'fragments' of the 'Black Angel'." He pointed at Nero and himself. "It was his first try, so it didn't turn out as expected; Of course, all of the poorly revived 'fragments' would be used in the reactivation of the Savior, and who knows what else, but one of those 'fragments' was very instable, so they thought that it would be better to seal him inside another 'fragment' so they could control him better. Foolish, don't you think? Aaand that was what really happened that day; you became an abomination, an incomplete being that had Sparda's blood and also half of the original fragment's powers, and the Order knew it, that's why you became their plan B when they weren't able to capture Dante fast enough. After all, we were created for that sole purpose." He sniggered. "You never thought about it, right? It was such a happy coincidence that you could repair Yamato when the Order tried and tried to do that for years…"

_…I don't… really get it anymore…_

His head was spinning. He was confused. In his own throat, there was a thick, loud gulping sound.

Aaah, he shouldn't have listened…!

"…Did I… somehow… get tricked…? I'm not... myself anymore?"

"More or less, but it's alright… don't worry; now that the seal is broken, why don't you take a rest? …I'll take care of everything in your absence."

* * *

There were no windows, only the solemn light of a grand chandelier lit up the room. The room was kind of elegant, in a twisted kind of way, of course: it was very spacious, with very small purple fragments of crystal floating all around the whole room. The decoration was pretty grotesque, with demonic statues at each side of the room.

In the middle of that place, a smirking demon sat in a red chair, observing different scenes from the human world through a magic crystal ball that laid on top of a small wooden table in front of him.

"Seems like our preparations are now completed. I wonder what will happen next? We should get this started, right?" He sniggered.

"Yeah, do so." Angelo replied with a smirk, sitting in a chair of the same color, in front of him. "That hilarious expression he wore when he saw me alone was worth it. …My… How nice."

Both of them laughed loudly.

"Isn't he a funny child? Now I understand why Master likes to torture him so much. It goes beyond revenge; he would be a very nice toy to play with."

"…He is. ... ...Hey, Angelo. Can I ask you something?"

The grey-eyed young man crossed his legs, supported his left fist on his cheek and cackled again. "What is it? What does the great marquis, Oray, want to know?"

"…When will you stop fooling around?"

Oray threatened him with a low voice, a tone of voice that he didn't expect to hear. It completely blew away the calm atmosphere which had been there until a moment ago.

Slowly, Angelo began to sit properly with a confused expression.

"…You know, if you don't have the power to win against Sparda's little boy, then we'll abandon you at anytime, right…? Don't mistake your goal."

"…H-How harsh of you… What about me dissatisfies you? I haven't done anything wrong, have I?"

"Yeah, that's right. Your level of magic is truly impressive, as well as those seals you used for the portal and for our master's chamber. You did well; you and your mistress managed to make Fortuna become a demonic island where Dante definitely cannot survive. That's why, in exchange for letting us borrow your powers, Valeria and Master made you a sorcerer. …If they you do something wrong or something that doesn't suit our goals, you'll immediately go back to being a human. Make sure you don't forget that, no matter how much incredible power you hold."

"Yes... I know... ... I am grateful to you…"

"Recently, it seems that you have forgotten your debt to us."

"Th, that is… … not so…"

Oray let out a shrill laugh and sneered at him with superiority. "That is not so?" He snorted. "You should be able to break Dante's confidence and hopes and defeat him without any trouble, but that child won't surrender easily. He'll challenge you over and over again."

"That is no problem. I have a lot of patience."

"…So what? That doesn't mean anything if you're not persistent… At first, I thought you were messing with Trish as a part of your tactics, but I get the feeling that's not quite true."

Angelo folded his arms, feeling slightly offended. "R-Ridiculous… How could that be…"

"You think I am stupid? I saw that you gave that blonde bitch one of your repellent seals. May I ask you why?"

"…"

"You know what? Your role in this war is to make Dante surrender, to make him feel so miserable that he had to beg us to end his pathetic life. As long as you keep trying to make him become that then we will keep giving you power." His face twisted with brutality. "…However, if you fight in a way that doesn't benefit us… Well, that's another story."

"O-Of course… I will never do that... ever...! I'll do as you wish… …"

"Well said, Angelo. Remember, if you make a move hoping for anything else, be ready for a world of pain. Didn't I tell you? If you crossed the line again, there would be serious consequences. Remember?"

"I-I… I will not do such a thing… I swear it!"

With a very distressed expression, Angelo disappeared from the room in a blink of an eye. Oray laughed, pleased by his reaction.

* * *

He looked around his new, strange surroundings slowly. There was too much light to even think that that place belonged to the demon world. …It looked like a theatre, surrounded by tiny purple crystals that floated in the air. Everything around him was white, the whole room was white, everything.

Dante was standing on the stage, under the spotlights.

At the moment when he was looking for the young man, he heard footsteps that came from behind him, and when he turned backwards, he didn't expect to find him there:

"…You must be shitting me…"

Nero made his way towards him slowly, and when Dante saw his eyes, his emotionless red eyes, he groaned and gritted his teeth in frustration.

"…Not again!"

* * *

**A/N: Hey, did you really think I would kill Nero? C'mon, that's cruel, I'm better than that, right? ...Right? ;A;.**

***Raum, another demon from the Lesser Key Of Solomon.**

***Captura: a chess move that consists on removing a piece or a pawn of the opponent's board and replacing it with a piece or pawn of their own.**

***Scusa: Sorry/Excuse me.**

**Ah, a lot of things had happened in this chapter, even though it seems otherwise. Now, what will happen next? Will Angelo get owned again? What will happen with Nero and his werido alter ego? What does the symbol inside the western envelope mean? Will Dante kick Mundus' ass in time? And what about Lady? Heh, so many questions, and all unanswered until I get my ass into working on the next chapter. Bear with me.**

**Thanks~!**


	7. Mediogioco

**A/N: Ah, damn, sorry, sorry for the delay! I was too busy with school, really. It has been hell, and I'm still not done! I think I will be able to update more regularly from next Friday on, but I can't make promises. I will try, of course, but I'm not sure.**

**Benifuku:** Me? Bored? I would never be bored of writing this fic and, of course, I would never be bored of reading your reviews. I'm glad you liked that chapter and I hope you like this one. You're so supportive~. About how I wrote the fight... well, when I want to write a fight, I usually do a lot of things before I start working on it... First, you should take your time and try not to get stressed (writing a rushed action scene would be a waste). Listening to music and playing hack and slash video-games also help me a lot when I want to write a fight or when I run out of ideas. Now, about Angelo... Hm, I am very fond of spoilers, but if I tell you who he is, this story would become boring, so I will give you a very small hint: _Vergil and Angelo are different entities. Angelo is his own persona._

**KuteInsanity: **I really, really appreciate your feedback and I'm glad you liked this story's plot and characters~. I've tried my best in writing a decent plot and interesting characters, and I have also tried to write Nero the best I could -it was difficult, because he wasn't one of my favorite characters and writing him was... very tedious and annoying because of that- so your words flatter me a lot. Once again, thank you so much and hope you like this chapter~.

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 7: Mediogioco**

* * *

"Snap out of it, Nero! Don't let him control you! Fight, do it, I know you can!" Dante shouted, shaking his shoulders.

Nero shoved Dante's hands away with disgust.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" The hunter asked, but he wasn't answered.

The teen, who now looked more like an adult, grabbed Red Queen and dashed towards him, but Dante blocked the attack with Rebellion and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him away. Nero recovered quickly, and Dante, knowing that fighting him would be of no use, decided to take both of his twin guns from their respective holsters to shot at his sword in an attempt to make him drop it and thus make him stop. He didn't want to hurt him, after all.

He began to shoot at Red Queen, but Nero returned those bullets to him using said sword. Dante didn't flinch and kept firing, but it all looked pointless.

…He gritted his teeth, totally frustrated. He didn't want to harm the kid, and every time, he found himself failing on purpose.

"Dammit!" He growled. "Fuck, Nero, get your shit together!"

Nero, in response, chuckled with a low, sinister tone of voice that Dante had never heard from him before and aimed for a single strike. Dante also dashed towards him and both of their swords collided.

As the two of them pressed their respective swords, Nero smirked and spoke;

"If you're looking for that child, he is not here anymore." He said as he pressed Red Queen. "Don't waste your time, there's no need to say anything else. Don't worry, you can close your eyes and finally rest; it'll be okay, I'll gently finish everything."

Dante's frown hardened when he noticed that Nero's right arm was fully human. "…Another one?" He muttered under his breath.

Taking advantage of Dante's absentmindedness, Nero kicked him in the stomach and pulled back, smirking as blue fireflies appeared in ones and twos from the scenery and gathered around him. Then, after he was wrapped in a blue sparkles, he burst and disappeared, and Nero's form was no longer there.

…Instead, after a few seconds of blinding light, there was another person before him, obviously older than Nero, maybe around Dante's age but perhaps a bit younger than him–he wasn't sure. His slicked back hair was short and vividly young despite his strong features and papery skin, and his lean figure in those elegant clothes was unrecognizable as a punk kid… No, he looked like a completely different person than Nero.

He was going to say something –maybe he was going to laugh at him, Dante thought- but as he was going to open his mouth, another magic circle appeared, gathering blue mist in the air, twisting. With a sound like glass breaking, a familiar figure appeared in front of Dante and behind the red-eyed man, frowning slightly.

"What a surprise…" The man with the red eyes said with a faint smile, not even turning around. "I didn't expect you to be here, actually."

He didn't reply. Angelo remained aloof. He seemed to be in deep thought, but when the other man turned around to face him, Angelo seemed to awake from his daze and quickly changed his facial expression to a sneering one to match his. Dante thought that his half-grin was kind of forced.

"…It's been so long since we last met…" He said in a quiet voice. "I must admit that I never even dreamed the day would come that we would meet each other again…"

"They were foolish, foolish because they thought they would be able to lock me inside that child forever, don't you think?" He smirked slightly. "It almost makes me laugh, how they thought that that birdcage of blood and flesh would be able to control me."

"Ah, I know…" He was starting to get bolder. "It was such a troublesome time for you to awaken… but you arrived just in time. That old man and his minions were getting a little too distraught when they realized that Dante couldn't be captured by any means, you know? It seems that they didn't trust in Agnus' and Valeria's words about you being still alive inside there."

"…I told him that everything was too convenient for being only a coincidence." He chuckled and closed his eyes. "They were running out of time and they couldn't capture Sparda's son in time, so he decided to break the seal that locked me inside that birdcage of flesh and blood and use that kid instead. After all, didn't that alchemist tell him that that child had power within him?" He opened his eyes and folded his arms with a confident aura. "Ah, it's almost funny how humans would do anything for power… And they dare to call us monsters."

Angelo sniggered and shook his head. "…It seems that you're chattier than usual. Was your confinement that long that you have lost your mind?"

"Despite all that, I really have to admit that I couldn't think of anyone better than you as a conductor for this ceremony…" He ignored him. "I mean, this all-star cast is more surprising than the gruesome state of the island: the great demon Oray, a nearly awakened Mundus, Dante, son of Sparda and even us. Isn't this nice? That both of the most powerful fragments are finally reunited?" His smirk widened as he turned backwards to face his companion. "Is this a Pandemonium?"

"Mundus' games are really interesting, aren't they? …They are truly perfect, but it's always nice to have some… trump cards, you know? Just in case. So we would want to have your assistance as facilitator in the completion of his ceremony to access the outside world. You have no objections to our summoning contract, right…?"

"Of course not. Why should I refuse the summoning subordination of someone who helped me to get out of that thing?" He folded his arms. "…I'll assist you, although I will, of course, charge a fitting price."

"Hoh…? And what could that be?"

…Dante ran his hands through his hair while they kept talking and talking. Dammit, why always that sort of things happened to him and not to someone else? He had to be cursed.

"That's enough…!" The hunter yelled in an attempt to catch their attention. Both of them stopped talking and looked at him with dumbfounded facial expressions. "Look, look… I'm in a rush, okay? I've gotta lot of things to do, I've gotta kick that bastard's ass and I've gotta do it quickly 'cause I have a date with Lady and she's gonna cut my balls off if I make her wait for too long." He pointed at them with Ebony and Ivory respectively. "In other words, both of you are going to tell me where he is, both of you are going to shut up already and both of you are going to stop laughing. Seriously, your cackles are really annoying."

There was a brief moment of silence, but it was soon interrupted by their loud laughs.

"You don't listen, do you?" Dante snarled.

He squeezed the trigger rapidly, but the bullets were repelled and slowed to a halt when they were about to pierce them. At that time, it seemed like a bright blue flash lit up the room. That blue flash seemed to wipe out the projectiles that wanted to tear into their chests as though drawing a circle with Angelo at the center. It was as if some kind of faint azure glowing barrier like a glass shield appeared and stopped the attack by a hair's breadth.

"Ah, sonny, that would have hurt them, you know? Where are your manners?"

…They were really, really pissing him off.

In a flash of purple smoke, the familiar demon marquis appeared, standing in front of the half demon with a sneering face.

"You, too, are annoying." Dante muttered under his breath as he lowered his weapons.

"Ohh, don't say such mean things, Dante."

"Jeez, you guys are everywhere. Give a guy a break." He complained.

Oray chuckled sinisterly. "I'm truly sorry, but that's something we can't do. After all, you're now in our territory, and we have orders not to let you escape, by any means necessary."

"Is that how you guys treat your guests? I demand a complaint form right now."

"Hahahaha…! Such insolence… Hey, you, there's no need to be like that. Since you have arrived here so far, why don't you let me praise you? …Making a deal would be nice, right?"

"A deal?" He pointed at Oray with Ivory. "What kind of deal? Explain yourself."

"It's pretty easy, really: you have proven yourself, so I though of this… If you defeat my worthiest servant, hm… let's see… I will tell you were our master is." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the grey-eyed man. "If not… well, I think you already know what will happen." He said as he moved away from them, standing at the edge of the scenery.

"Is that all?"

"Show me that you can defeat him, sonny. If you superbly defeat him, I'll keep my word and show you the way to him. I wonder if you will be able to do so, anyway… you seem to be pretty tired, child." He laughed loudly, his voice echoing through the walls.

"You really like to hear your own voice, don't you?" Dante retorted.

Oray was going to say something more, but the man with red eyes made his way towards him with a slightly distressed face and interrupted him.

"...Are you sure of this?" He whispered.

"Completely. I know what I'm doing." He answered as he clapped his hands together, creating a golden barrier that surrounded Dante and Angelo, so the half-devil could only walk forward, towards the other man dressed in black.

"If I was you, I would be preparing myself," Dante called out mockingly as he glared at him "because when I'm finished with this impostor, I'm coming after you!"

"Yes, sure thing." Oray sniggered. "I see you have lots of energy, Dante. Let's see how long that lasts. I'll leave this to you, Angelo."

"As you command." He stepped forward, smiling mischievously. "It wouldn't be interesting if it wasn't like this, don't you think? With certainty, this seems to be like fun."

"Yeah, that's right…" Dante laughed a little, grinning. "We're going to have a lot of fun…! You, me…, and them." He shook both of his twin guns, smiling sardonically. "These babes want to say 'hello' to you."

The younger man laughed a deep, confident chuckle. "I don't like it. The way you look down on me, the way you talk... it's annoying, I really don't like it."

"That's because you're an uptight bastard. You're really not fun at all." Dante laughed a little and shook his head. "A shame, really, 'cause I thought you would be a worthy rival."

Dante's mockery and cockiness and maybe the fact that he wasn't afraid of him in the slightest were probably humiliating Angelo, but at the same time, he was also happy that he was so lucky and had that lovely prey all to himself…

"Heh, is that so? Ha… how funny… I think I'm going to enjoy this more than I should…!"

Angelo launched at him, but Dante was fast enough to dodge the slash from his sharp crystalline sword. As he jumped backwards, Dante shot at him rapidly, but the bullets were all repelled by that annoying barrier. Of course, attacking him from afar would be of no use.

The hunter put Ebony and Ivory in their holsters and whipped out Rebellion, dashing towards him. Angelo managed to change said sword's trajectory and quickly took advantage from that to try to cut Dante's abdomen with his own sword, but the hunter quickly dodged the attack, recovered and aimed for his shoulder, but the young man, once again, pushed Dante's massive sword aside and attempted another slash at his neck. Dante jumped backwards, dodging the attack. Instantaneously, the half-demon aimed Rebellion for Angelo's heart. He was able to block that attack, but it was too powerful and he was knocked away as though as he was a featherweight.

Angelo swiftly jumped to his feet and readied himself for the next attack coming from the hunter: Red and black energy charged along Rebellion's blade. Once it was shining in scarlet, Dante swung it and a blast of energy was sent towards the other man. With a confident smile, Angelo snapped his fingers and a magic blue barrier appeared, surrounding him and protecting him. When the red blast of energy hit the barrier and disappeared, Angelo dashed towards Dante, aiming for a frontal attack. Dante mirrored the action, and both of the swords clashed. Angelo tried to overpower Dante by pressing his sword with all the might he had, but in the end, Dante proved to be the strongest one of them and was able to push Angelo away. Then, in a blink of an eye, the platinum-haired hunter attacked him again. The blade made contact with him before he could move away.

…However, Rebellion didn't cut flesh, but air.

"…Why don't you apologize and crawl on the ground right now?" He hissed, appearing behind him. "If you do it, I'll forgive you, alright?"

Dante didn't have a chance to evade as the sword cut his abdomen. He quickly spun around, ignoring the pain, and launched towards Angelo. As he dashed towards him, several spectral spears were aimed at him, but Dante kept dashing towards him, dodging them and ignoring the ones that were able to hit him.

Angelo realized that Dante was going to corner him if he kept closing the distance between them, so he lunged at him, too -that way he would have moer space to move away from him, and he wouldn't be cornered against the golden barrier. The two of them gave a roar as they closed the gap between each other, and then, their swords collided again. Both of them glared at each other as they pressed their swords once more.

Finally, the two of them pulled back simultaneously. Dante was the first to resume the fight, lunging directly to him. Since he was aiming for a single strike, Angelo thought it would be good if he did that as well. The two began moving faster and faster, striking each other so quickly that their moves were too fast for the human eye. Since his moves could only seen as flashes, Angelo took advantage from this, since Dante was more of a brute fighter than a quick devil, and was able to kick him in the chest, forcefully enough to make him back off.

Before he was even able to recover, Angelo raised his hand and when his palm glowed with blue energy, he thrust it forward, catching Dante full in the chest. There was an explosion afterwards. The force of the spell was so strong that it burned half of Dante's black shirt and sent him careening back. His grip on Rebellion slipped.

Dante rolled out of the fall and drew Ebony and Ivory from their holsters, not wasting a moment before he started to cover Angelo with led. Blood dripped from his head and chest, mimicking the red of his coat. Angelo was walking towards him with a wide smirk. The bullets stuck in that glowing blue barrier before they reached him, so Dante's efforts seemed kind of pointless

"Checkmate, Dante." He retorted as he approached him. "This is clearly the end."

"…Well…" He sighed, breathing heavily. "Looks like I was wrong by looking down on you…" Angelo was now much closer than before. "I'm sure you may have given the kid a run for his money, so..." Angelo raised his sword. "No holding back anymore."

A burst of redpower erupted from Dante. That shockwave knocked Angelo away, making him collide with the golden barrier. When his back made contact, there was a sound like that of flesh burning and splitting open. His face twisted in pain as he quickly moved away from said wall. He brought his left hand to inspect the injured area of his back. It hurt like hell, and it didn't stop bleeding. He hissed when his hand touched lightly the wounds of his back and shoulders.

He had to endure that pain. He just had to. He didn't have any other choice.

Hell.

Angelo quickly turned his face towards the spot where Dante was standing with a very annoyed expression. Dante was glaring at him with his dark, red eyes, too. His demon form glowed with a malefic red aura.

"Let's get serious now."

"I'd expect nothing less from you, Dante." Angelo stated in a calm voice in contrast with his slightly pained expression. "It seems it will be impossible for me to defeat you if I don't wreck this whole place!" He exclaimed as he stood up, shaking slightly.

He raised his arm again, a blue-ish aura surronding him and the sword. In response to Angelo's summons, the sword he was holding burst into tiny crystals, making a terrible blue-colored explosion where a beautiful, glowing blue spear showed itself. He caught it in mid-air, quickly, and in a blink of an eye, he disappeared in a blur, appearing in front of Dante's demonic form and slashing the spear upwards.

The attack was too quick for Dante, so when he leaned back to dodge it, he received a shallow cut across his chest. As he stumbled back, Angelo attacked him two more times, but Dante's devil form was strong enough to stand his slashes. Then, the half-demon brought his sword upwards, leaving Angelo with a shallow cut on his chest. He snarled in anger.

Angelo backed off erratically and then launched towards Dante, who knocked his spear aside and then tried to stab him with Rebellion, but he wasn't fast enough, and Angelo dodged that attack and cut him along the legs. Dante spun from the blow, swinging Rebellion around and injuring Angelo's waist.

He fell back, breathing heavily, but he quickly recovered and dashed towards him again. Dante moved forward, too, trying to stab Angelo but failing repeatedly.

Even though the wounds on his body had slowed him down considerably, he was still able to dodge Dante's stabs. …Of course, that was until Dante thrust the last strike, putting more power behind it than the rest.

…He knocked Angelo away as if he was a feather and, before he could stand up, Dante stabbed his shoulder and pinned him against the floor. A cry of anguish issued from his lips as the half demon reverted to his human form, twisting the blade in an attempt to hold him still.

"Wh…What is this…? How could I…! …There… There must be some mistake…!" He retorted between gasps, feeling too tired to even try to teleport and escape from the grip of Dante's sword.

As he ground his teeth in irritation, he tried to deny the situation, but no matter how much he believed in his own superiority, it didn't change the facts right before his eyes.

Dante was going to say something more to him, but before he was able to do so, there was a sound of glass breaking and then the sound of clapping.

"Hoh. Congratulations, Dante. That was wonderful; you sure haven't made me bored." He sniggered. "…How pitiful is that incomplete thing compared to that?"

The golden barrier had broken and Oray stood in front of them with a confident smile. Dante glared at him, removing Rebellion from Angelo's shoulder.

…For an outsider, Oray's words would have seemed like nothing more than a simple rebuke, but however, Angelo knew what kind of severe treatment was promised by that reprimand, and understood what had been left unsaid.

Oray walked towards them slowly, and when he was almost next to Angelo, he sneered at him with an evil, sadistic smile and waved his hand. When he did that, Angelo's body began to levitate, and then his body smacked against the ceiling.

The ceiling doesn't seem that high to people standing on the floor. …However, the man who had fallen onto it didn't feel the same way. Angelo moaned in pain as his head hit the ceiling.

Then, Oray waved his hand again, and the magic that had been affecting Angelo dissipated, making him fall down. A large trail of blood dripped from his head as he howled in pain, his eyes horribly red. Even Dante, who was previously trying to kill him, couldn't stand to look at it.

"Well done, Dante." Oray said clapping his hands and pressing his right foot on the black-haired man's head, who moaned and squirmed in pain. "This is your victory. Congratulations. Spectacular!"

He snapped his fingers and a portal appeared behind Dante.

"Tsk! Have you backed out already? Didn't you say that you would fight me?"

"Don't make me laugh; you can't even stand on your feet." He chuckled. "You should be grateful, for I am a man of honor and I haven't broken my promise, letting you go to my master's chamber. How many demons have done that to you?" He snapped his fingers again and another portal showed itself. He grinned. "'til next time."

Dante shot at them rapidly, but it was of no use, because both Oray and the man with red eyes disappeared before the projectiles could damage them. They left him alone in that strange place with a half-conscious Angelo, who was still laying face-down, coughing blood.

He tried to open his eyes and stand up, but that was impossible for him to do.

…_There's no turning back!_

…_This will not be settled any other way!_

…_Dad?_

…_Why must you be so stubborn?_

…_You'll never be like him!_

As he tried to stay conscious, he was able to hear some kind of distorted noises and voices, voices that he never heard before. With half-lidded eyes, at the verge of blacking out, Angelo stared at Dante, who was moving towards the portal. He had the feeling that he was staring at him too, but he wasn't completely sure about that.

He didn't mind, anyway.

When Dante was about to cross the portal, Angelo gave up.

* * *

Whenever she flipped through the pages of the old books of the order's library, she would angrily slam them closed. Her piercing blue eyes glared towards the ticking grandfather clock on the other side of that once neat and organized library, a reminder of what she didn't have: time.

She picked up another old-looking grimoire, tapped her fingernails on the cover and then, opened it. She had read almost every book in that library, but she hadn't found any kind of information about that strange symbol yet, so she just flipped the pages of that book, looking for some kind of image that resembled that picture inside the envelope she found inside Nero's pocket.

…Today had been so long… So many things had happened in one day… and they had been cornered so thoroughly…

…W…Wait… … … There it was.

"…I found it. …It's this magic circle."

…Inside the book Trish had been flipping through, she had found the same magic circle that had been drawn on the second sheet of the letter. The pentacle seemed to represent a door or a gate, and there was writing in Hebrew.

…The first pentacle of the Moon. That magic circle's name was the first pentacle of the Moon.

In the center was written the name IHVH. On the right hand there were some kind of names written, and on the left hand there were the names of some Angels. The versicle above the names on either side was from Psalm cvii. 16:– 'He hath broken the Gates of brass, and smitten the bars of iron in sunder.'

…It said that it opened all doors and locks, no matter in what way they were fastened…

"And what am I supposed to do with that?" Trish asked to no one in particular, waving with disdain the second sheet that was inside of the letter as she tried to stand up with clumsy movements.

…Then, when she did so, she thought she heard a sound. Where did that came from? Was that the sound of something big falling on the floor? She rolled her eyes and thought she would check what that noise really had been. When she did, she saw lots and lots of books scattered all over the place along with some kind of papers with strange symbols drawn on them. As she thought, something made them fall.

She decided not to worry about it too much -after all, the library was certainly old-, but there was another strange noise coming from a different area that made her change her mind.

She clicked her tongue and slapped her forehead, sighing.

"This is sick." She said aloud. "You really, really have a sick, unhealthy obsession with me." She put the paper with the magic circle drawn on it inside the pocket of her trousers and took her guns. Then, she looked at the ceiling. "…I'm already used to your stalking tendencies, so why don't you show up already? I'm not patient type."

When she finished talking, all the bookshelves began to crumble at once. It grew even stronger, and finally, all the books fell down, and from within a bookshelf next to Trish, a slender white arm reached out. She quickly moved away from it, and it seemed to do the same.

The books from the other bookshelves fell down as well, and then, a loud shrill laughter split the air along with a strident, cracking noise.

"Those things are runes." It was a soft, monotone voice. "They can make people disappear, they potentiate magic, they act as seals and, sometimes, they can even alter the reality of things and places." A small girl with long black hair appeared in front of the blonde with a haughty look in her eyes. "He really knows what he's doing. Our master's power is overwhelming right now, so it won't be hard to bring him to the human world, but that would be a waste, right? Even though this place is now a demon island and everything around you is a portal to the underworld, if we tried to bring him outside without any caution… Well, that would be impossible if we don't want to wreck this whole island." A twisted, distorted giggle forced itself out of her mouth. "Runes are useful for that; they potentiate magic and they'll be helpful for our Lord's ceremony, among other things, of course, and they will be quite useful for controlling certain nuisances…" She extended her arm towards Trish. "Now, miss, if it's not too much to ask, I would like you to give me that piece of paper you're hiding in the left pocket of your trousers. Now."

"Why should I? Is this piece of paper that special?"

The girl cackled without emotion -why did she laugh, then?- and shook her head

"Then, you leave me with no other choice."

She snapped her fingers and suddenly, beneath Trish's feet, a portal opened its mouth wide. Of course, Trish had no way of resisting.

After being swallowed up by that, the demoness fell out of another portal that had opened up in the ceiling of that room, just before Raum's empty eyes. Trish was hit by a reverse of roundhouse kicks from the small girl's sharp stiletto heel. One of those lethal kicks hit her in the gut and sent her flying away.

Trish collided against a wall, creating a small hole with the shape of her figure. She quickly recovered and launched towards Raum, aiming for a single strike. It was nothing, her spirit hadn't given in and the damage to her body wasn't significant at all.

Her strength was evident. She may not be very clever, but she was still a good rival, and Raum knew that.

A series of crows were summoned by the black-haired demoness, appearing in a blurr of black feathers. Then, they flew towards Trish, but she rapidly ducked and moved to the left, and then to the right. The crows were annoying and they slowed her down, but she managed to make her way through the black storm of birds -not without spitting some black feather from her mouth, though. The black-haired demoness was caught off guard, for she didn't expect her to dodge all her familiars, so Trish was able to capture Raum and kick her in the face with a roundhouse kick from her heel. The demoness backed off, the crows disappeared thanks to their master's deconcentration and Trish took advantage of that to prepare her next movement. She stretched her arm forward and blue arcs of electricity escaped from her outstretched arm; she blasted a beam of blue light that traveled five times the speed of sound towards Raum; the ground was ravaged badly and the sound almost deafened Trish even when she was used to those kind of sounds.

The girl didn't flinch and quickly opened a portal. She crossed it, avoiding the beam of electricity. Then, a black portal opened behind Trish and Raum appeared behind her, but before the black-haired demoness could have the chance of kicking her with more roundhouse kicks, Trish jumped backwards, dodging her kicks.

When she magnificently landed on the floor and tried to conjure more electric beams, a razor-sharp wind cut an enormous lock of her hair. …Yes, it cut it, leaving her with a pretty bizarre hairstyle. Raum had closed in over all the distance in an instant,ad managed to cut nothing more than several of her hair.

Trish looked at her hair with disgust and then, she dashed towards her again.

Raum dodged her kicks and spells as if it was nothing, jumping majestically. When she landed and collided with a wall and couldn't jump anymore, Trish snarled in anger and fired a bolt of lightning her way. Raum leaped out of the way by opening another portal, crossing it before the beam could fulminate her. The electrical power that emanated from her fists collided to the wall where Raum had been standing, and it broke several bookshelves; their wooden remains were all over the floor, hampering and slowing down the fight.

In a blink of an eye, the black-haired woman appeared behind Trish and tried to slash her with her claws. Small droplets of blood fell from Trish skin, who managed to jump and dodge the attack but was wounded in the process.

She wiped the traces of blood from her mouth with her hand, remaining aloof, and launched towards her again once she had her face completely cleaned of the small droplets of blood that streamed down her mouth. Trish kicked her in the stomach before she could do something about it, and Raum was sent flying away.

She fell on the floor, but she quickly recovered and began to stand up. Her face was still devoid of emotion.

"Give me that paper." The girl said in a soft monotone, standing up from the floor. "This will be the last time I will repeat it; give me that thing."

"Why, sweetheart? It is mine. And even if it weren't, didn't anyone teach you how to share?"

She only shrugged. "Fine, if you insist…"

As a large portal to the demon world -or somewhere related with the netherworld- opened in the ceiling, four demons which looked like something akin to a goat -tail and horns, at least- fell out. They surrounded Trish.

"…Reinforcements, huh? I wonder if I should take this to mean that all of you take back all you said about me being weak and stupid… What should I do, I wonder~?"

She grinned broadly while Raum stared her from afar with her dim, red eyes, completely unharmed. Those demons were stupid, but it looked like at least they had power and agility, so they would be able to entertain her while she calculated her next movements.

The goat-like demons had launched at Trish, but she kicked their bodies away from her, zapping them with bolts of electricity when they got closer to her than they should.

Raum observed the scene and, as she did so, she certainly could see it. She saw that bluish glow of light that encircled Trish's fists.

"…This is not good… Enchanted, is it?" She mumbled blankly. "Why does this incompetent puppet have a defensive barrier?" She clicked her tongue. "…This could be troublesome…"

It seemed that Trish couldn't see that blue light that emanated from her fists, but Raum could. Maybe for Trish that was only determination, but for Raum that was different.

Certain determination becomes magic… and the runes inside that room potentiated that magic –that was why they used them in the first place, in order to have more power so their lord could easily cross the portal that leaded to the human world-.

The demons launched at Trish, but she kicked their bodies away from her, zapping them with bolts of electricity when they got too close to her. She lightly dodged the log-like arms of the first one and then she counterattacked it with a powerful beam of lightning that sent it flying away, breaking the remaining bookshelves in the process. At that moment, the library was a complete mess; there wasn't anything more that could be broken. The second one was kicked by the stiletto heel of her black leather boot, fell forwards and floated in the air for a second. Then, Trish's next roundhouse kick missed right over the falling demon's head, but unfortunately for it, a heel was dropped onto the back of its head, and it was forced to kiss the ground. The other two remaining ones launched at her at the same time, but they were fulminated by a bolt of lighting that emanated from her glowing fists.

Both of them fell down and turned to dust.

Without losing a second, Raum took advantage of Trish's moment of weakness and dashed towards her with overwhelming speed. Trish turned quickly when she heard her heavy footsteps and blocked her attacks. Raum kicked at Trish's shins rapidly, and in the instant of weakness when the blonde tried to deal with that, she aimed a kick at her stomach. She was going to stab her with her stiletto, but it sliced through the air where Trish was no longer. She clicked her tongue. …By Raum's side, the demoness stood calmly, and she didn't give her a chance to defend herself and launched at her rapidly. Her roundhouse kicks cut through the air as Raum leaped in the air, dodging her multiple attacks. Some of them cut her papery skin as if it was butter, but she seemed to ignore them.

As she kept dodging kicks and spells, her emotionless facial expression seemed to have faltered slightly. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration and her lips were shut tight, but that was alln she was going to show. She didn't want to let Trish know that she was frustrated because she hadn't received any single fatal wound yet.

That would be a sign of weakness, and she knew what happened to those who were weak.

It seemed she will have to get a little more serious.

* * *

"You have come, just as I knew you would, Dante." The familiar demonic voice hissed.

"Of course. Who else would look this good, anyway?" He retorted as he spread his arms.

Dante stood in front of a white marble statue inside of a strange, empty and dark room. The statue was hundreds of feet tall, with huge angelic-like wings spreading from its back. The white feathers rained over the room, making it look like some kind of sacred place. Mundus, now in his full form and completely healed –Dante realized that that huge hole that Mundus had in his chest had disappeared- spread his arms out, sending waves of demonic energy across the room.

"Foolish child, do you really feel like winning? What do you think you can do?"

"Well, I've gotta lot of things in my mind, like kicking your ugly ass back to hell, for example." Dante laughed a little before glaring up at Mundus. "…They say third time is the charm, right?"

The devil prince laughed deeply. "You worthless scum, it's true that you defeated me in Mallet, but that means nothing; I just underestimated your abilities, but now I have prepared myself!"

Red light glowed around Mundus' forehead before hundreds of red lances were fired at Dante, drawing a beautiful geometric curtain of death. The boorish sound that the small spears made when they were launched was probably even deeper than the sound of a death god swinging its sickle. It looked like the air between the two exploded in fireworks.

Dante spun and dived, dodging the storm of red lances. When he landed on the ravaged floor majestically, he grinned roguishly at the demon emperor.

"Stronger? You? Really?" Dante sniggered. "It doesn't look like it. Lying is bad for the heart."

"Arrogant fool, I will tear you to shreds before you can even blink!"

"Yeah, sure thing… Look, that sounds fun and all, but I've got a date with Lady and she'll cut my balls off if I'm late, so I'm kinda in a rush, you see." He unfolded Ebony and Ivory and pointed at Mundus with them. "...However, maybe she will forgive me if I return with your head as a trophy. I will have a plausible excuse, then."

Mundus laughed a deep dark chuckle and then, the earth began to shake.

Both of his servants moved away from him quickly, because if they didn't do so, then they would probably have turned into a red stain on the floor by now.

A smirk crept over Oray's fangs.

That was going to be fun.

* * *

_"Finally!"_

_Agnus' cries of joy and grotesque laughter resounded through that building's white walls. Someone could have heard the entire conversation they had inside that half-empty room because of his exaltation, but that hardly mattered._

_No, it didn't really matter. In fact, everyone seemed to be as content and pleased as him; they just refrained themselves from externalize their feelings of rejoice._

_With a small smile of satisfaction, the blue-eyed woman began to walk in circles around the altar that was placed in the center of the room. Everyone was staring at her, but she knew that she wasn't the spotlight of that reunion; they were also staring at the person who was laying on that retable and at their leader, who didn't seem to be very satisfied._

_"Give it a rest, Agnus. We haven't finished yet." She said mockingly, caressing the altar's texture. "We're almost there, but we're not done."_

_"He is a human." His holiness complained, frowning with disapproval. "He's the same as the other kid who we inevitably had to use to seal that unstable demon that we tried to revive recently. He is a human, a human…! He does us no good, we failed again: the black angel is still uncompleted."_

_"Is that so?" Valeria asked as she put her hands on her hips. "Well, yeah, he's still not completed, but we still have Dante, so it's alright… Either way, this child is something special, you see? Maybe we can't use him as the energy source for the Savior, he may be incomplete and doesn't have Sparda's blood, but I'm sure that he will be a perfect piece to use as a decoy in order to draw Sparda's son's attention, just like Yamato, even if it's broken; we have the essential to start all this… We just need more time and make sure if that other kid has or develops demonic power. Remember that his demonic counterpart, the unstable fragment, was sealed by us inside him, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't exist anymore… he's still there, and as he had promised us, that child has Sparda's blood; both of them have it, unlike him." She looked at the man who lay in the altar. "We still have the most perfect fragments with us, don't worry… I already thought about a plan B… We just have to wait and verify if that kid develops demonic energy or not, so if the Son of Sparda fails us, we can always break the seal that lays within him, even if it brings us some drawbacks."_

_Sanctus' frown hardened as he stared at the unconscious and barely alive boy in front of them._

_"…But these wonderful pieces aren't free, right? After all, it was you the one who gave us Yamato, the one who got his approval to bring us the black angel's fragments in order to make possible this ceremony and the one who helped us to complete our investigation…Demons don't do that kind of things for nothing, not even humans, and someone who gives us something so important as that sword and Sparda's blood has to want something very important." He raised an eyebrow, turning his head back to look at him in the eye. "What price do you want to charge us for borrowing such wonderful pieces?"_

_Valeria and his followers did the same as him; they all turned around towards the direction where that black-eyed humanoid being was standing, leaning against a wall. Dressed in a gray tunic and showing a smirk that couldn't be called human, the 'man', if someone could call him that, began to open his mouth to speak, but before he could charge them a fitting price for his gifts to them, the sound of coughing and moaning interrupted him._

_Valeria was the first one who stared towards the direction where that sounds came from. A small smirk showed in her face._

_The unconscious person who was laying on the altar began to wake up, slowly, coughing as he opened his eyes with difficulty, as if they were glued with industrial adhesive._

_"Welcome back, sweetie…" The blonde purred as she looked him straight in the eyes._

* * *

Slowly, Angelo opened his eyes. He hardly realized they had been closed. He looked at his surroundings, still laying face-down, but he didn't see anything new; he was still in that theatre scenery, with those purple fragments of crystal glowing and drifting around him.

He still felt weak and tired, but he made the effort to stand up.

The blood that streamed down from his head was now dry, but he didn't mind. Angelo's grey eyes were dim and devoid of emotion as he looked at the empty scenery.

* * *

_"I'm sorry we were so cruel to you, I never meant to hurt you so much…!" Valeria, the woman with the thick Italian accent, cladded in pristine white clothes, released him from the handcuffs that were leaving marks in his wrists. _

_He didn't know how long he's been there, but that didn't matter much if he was going to be kept there. Abandoned, he was. He tried to hate her. Hate them._

_He was successful._

_Hate kept him pretty much alive. It was the thought of tearing guts that made him keep up with everything. If he died, he wouldn't be able to put them out of their misery. That was more than enough. Revenge._

_But that woman said she would give it back -that thing he lost long ago, that he thought he was born without. _

_The ultimate truth. _

_He couldn't just kill her like that. Even if he could, that woman sure knew how to avoid certain death. She thought she could teach him -but it was more like a torture._

_There were wounds all over his body, slowly oozing blood from all the training he has ben subjected. It was a miracle he hadn't fainted. Her voice was so full of concern it was sickening. Sickening, because he knew it was fake. "But you must understand that we do this for your own good~. You must learn to defend yourself and become stronger! And Nirvana will be reachable."_

_But that's a lie._

* * *

**A/N:  
**

***Mediogioco: Middlegame. It's the part of a chess game that follows the opening and comes before the endgame.**

***The first pentacle of the moon: This pentacle appears in _The Lesser key of Solomon_ and it's a representation of a door or a gate. It opens all doors, no matter in which way they were fastened.**

**Unfortunately, the next chapter of this fic will have to wait until I finish this last semester. There's no way I can be able to keep writing on the next week, so... yeah. Have patience, I promise I will update this fic sooner or later.**

**Thanks for reading~!**

**PD: I'll give a lollipop to the one who can tell me from where I took the 'teleporting powers via portals' idea~. A hint: She's blonde, a bit lazy and wears purple~ :3.**


	8. Sfondamento

**A/N: Alright, alright. I lied. Okay. I'm very sorry, really D: I don't know what happened with this chapter, but it was very difficult to write. Logically, I had a lot of time to write a decent, long chapter, but this one isn't very long... It is... Um. Consider it as a transitional chapter rather than an actual chapter. The next one will be better and longer, okay? Oh, and Lady will finally appear in the next chapter, so the 'romance' genre of this fic will return~, I think. Ah, God, bear with me.**

**Benifuku: **Thanks for your continued support~, it really puts me in a very good mood :D I'm glad you loved the fights and the fact Dante mentioned Lady twice; he seems to care about her, right? xD Well, about Raum, maybe she reminds you of Samara because her hair is black and long, and well, the only gothic lolita that could resemble her is Frederica Bernkastel from Umineko; if she isn't the gothic lolita you were thinking, then I don't know~ :3 Oh, and you don't need to feel empathy for Angelo. Actually, he is a son of a bitch and there are a lot of things about him to hate, but I guess that makes him a bit pitiful. In the next chapter you will find out about almost everything concerning him, and Mundus and Nero and Lady... etc. I just need to work on it more xD Anyways, thank you very much for reviewing and hope to see you here again~~ :D

**NEVEERSAYNEEVERILOVEYOUJUSTI N:** I had to read your review twice to understand what you were telling me, but it's alright. Glad to know you like how I write and my expressions, thank you very much~~ :D

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 8: Sfondamento**

* * *

What a horrible mess.

Raum's once proud form was now a crumbled mess of dried blood covered by her long, black hair -the tangled mess that would break a hairbrush if someone tried to brush it. Her body was covered in blood and wounds that slowly oozed blood -they were ugly, gaping, and looked very painful. Certainly, just by looking at them, one could say they would get infected very easily if she didn't do anything about that. If a normal human had had them, they wouldn't have survived.

Her body didn't feel like healing itself that fast and easily. Oh, what a shame.

Trish looked down at Raum, the fortieth ranked demon of the seventy-two pillars and one of Mundus' best servants, with cocky pride.

"It seems you have lost, little one~." Trish boasted as she cleaned her nails from nonexistent filth. "Do you have any last words? Something you would like to say or do before you are kicked back to hell again?"

Even though the black-haired demoness had been beaten up horribly and now was being humiliated, she still had some strength within her, and with a deranged smile she tried to stand up.

Trish cleaned the strands of blood that ran down her mouth and smirked. "…Come, lowly servant; don't think you can look down on me forever!"

Those words encouraged her and with quick, fluid movements, Raum stood up and dashed towards the blonde woman who was openly sneering at her, but she was knocked easily and was sent flying away. When she collided with the floor, Trish walked towards her and stabbed her with the stiletto heel of her black-leather boot. Raum shuddered and gritted her teeth, her fingers spasming, but she didn't scream.

That would be degrading, even more degrading that being defeated by puppet who had lost the right to be called 'demon' (because since when do demons have a heart~?). She couldn't accept what had happened.

She didn't want to, because she knew what happened to the weak.

Trish won.

She lost.

_And_ s_he should have won. _Now it was all over for her.

"Pathetic. Truly pathetic." Trish laughed lightly.

Trish pointed at her forehead with her gun, and shot numerous times, on repeat, before the other demoness could do anything about it.

The only things that remained of her were blood, crow feathers and a body that was beginning to glow in a bright light, disappearing into the ether before Trish could notice it.

And then, when the light vanished, there was a loud 'thunk', like something metallic falling down, and when the black cladded demoness came in closer to look what had fallen, she realized that besides the crown feathers and the blood, there was also some kind of a golden dagger, as a substitute for the other demon's body that was no longer there now.

Trish bent down and grabbed it. Then she took a quick look at it. The dagger, she had to agree, was utterly beautiful, a rich man's fantasy; it was covered in gold and precious stones of all kinds, so many of them she was sure it would blind her if she kept staring at it.

She could see her own reflection in the dagger's blade.

"… …Cool."

* * *

…_You will never be like him!_

Confusing.

…_This won't be settled any other way! This is the only way!_

Very confusing.

…_Honor? What do you know about honor?_

Too confusing.

Everything was too confusing for him to understand. He just couldn't think of a reason why he had had those… visions, and it hurt his head trying to do so.

Those things he had seen and heard… they weren't a part of his memories, he knew it.

Those strange voices he had never listened before and those distorted images of that small, lonely and lost child were someone else's memories, not his, and they were making him have a headache.

Angelo's mind was a total chaos.

She who brought him to life. She who allowed him into her home. Why didn't she tell him anything? He used to respect her, and not only as a servant. He thought she cared about him, even if it was just a little bit.

But his Mistress has betrayed him… … Somehow.

And he had made a mistake… … Somehow.

* * *

In her dimly-lit room that smelled of old books that she would always be reading, Valeria kept mumbling trivial stuff to herself, laughing like a hyena whenever she thought of something she considered 'funny'.

Ah, he was such a foolish child… no, both of them were, because both of them still thought that they would be able to win and get a happy ending.

But that was just wishful thinking.

Valeria wondered what it would be like if he learnt the truth about his persona; learnt about who he really is and what his real purpose in life was sorry to burst his bubble (no, actually, she wasn't~), but it was impossible for him to become 'real', and she only had to remind him he had no friends and family to make her point valid. He would fall, he would fail, and nothing except of ash will be left of him. That's not cruel, certainly not. Why would someone feel pity for someone so non-tragic like him? The facts were plain and clear. There was nothing tragic in that pitiful child, actually. He was a pawn, a tool for sorcery. There would be no 'tragedy' if (when) he died. That made it okay.

What would he do if he knew?

That would surely kill him, and she doesn't want to kill him just yet -that would consecuently kill the others, too, and Valeria needs them now more than she ever had, even if they were just tools for sorcery that were created by Agnus in order to please his master's selfish desires of power.

Exactly, that was what they were.

He used the powers of the Black Angel that still remained in Yamato with the aid of some demons of the 72 pillars, that also offered him those powers to create those demons and he also tried to create the fount of power that would be used in the activation of the Savior; he actually dared to reconstruct Sparda's firstborn son's soul, mind and body to use him instead of Dante and make things easier.

Unfortunately, he didn't succeed and things didn't go as planed; when he first tried to 'revive' him, instead of doing so, he created some kind of 'hybrid' with Sparda's blood that was more of a human than a demon. That kid was useless, they couldn't extract power from him in order to create more prefabricated demons because he didn't have anything and they couldn't use him for the activation of the Savior even though he had Sparda's blood.

A failure.

Then, a few years later, he tried to revive him again, and he was confident that that time he would be able to do so, but no… he wasn't able, and instead of reviving him, he created not a hybrid, but a demon, an unstable cumul of power that threatened to kill all of them if they didn't do something about it, and in the end, they had to seal him inside that kid's body. Valeria remembered that she, like a few other members of the order of the sword, wasn't sure if sealing him inside him was a good idea, but the demons of the 72 pillars that helped them to seal that 'fragment' proved her wrong: it seemed that it actually worked, the kid didn't suspect anything, he never tried to investigate what really happened that day and the demon inside him seemed to be happily sleeping in his arm.

It was so miraculous that Agnus and some other alchemists –she, of course, was among them– weren't exactly sure of what had happened and investigated the strange case of that child's freakish arm. It took a while –she wasn't sure if it took months or even years to know what had happened and what was happening– but they finally were able to solve the 'mystery', if you could call it that.

The 'fragments' didn't merge together perfectly, but still, they were able to coexist and that arrogant kid seemed –because at first they weren't sure- to have that demon's power, or at least half of it, since they had to break the seal in order to be able to use him for his holiness' plan to activate the Savior –Dante was more elusive than they first thought, but it was alright because he was stupid enough to bring them Sparda's ancient sword and because they had already a plan B that just needed to be polished.

It was good that Agnus made sure if he had demonic power or not. If he hadn't done that, then maybe they would have never known about that, or at least, not in time.

A shame that that uncompleted kid, along with Dante, destroyed Sanctus' pathetic Savior.

It would have been entertaining to watch, but oh well…

… … …Then, after creating that unstable demon and sealing him within that boy's arm, Agnus tried to revive him once again and… Well, of course, it didn't work, and instead of reviving him, he created another... thing. That time, it was some kind of an amnesic human. He seemed to have great powers and Valeria realized that he was pretty good at sorcery, but he couldn't be used for the ceremony, because unlike the other ones, that child didn't have Sparda's blood and powers; he just had an uncanny resemblance with the legendary dark knight's younger son and powers that didn't relate to him.

He was created to be used by them; not for activate the Savior, because he didn't have the requirements to do so, but as a decoy.

He's always been that.

On the antique clock with the intricate design that had been sitting on her desk, the two overlapping hands titled to the right, and began to slide. The measure of time that counted twenty-four had returned to zero, and had begun to count back again… Their time was running short.

"Ah~, time, our worst enemy... you don't like me much, right? Everything must be resolved on this night, but you aren't helping us in the slightest." She closed her eyes, yawning. "What a cruel entity you are."

Time is very valuable. Without time, Valeria's plans would go to waste. People should be sleeping at this hour. Her servants weren't. They had to exploit what little time they had and bring that _little pest_ to her.

The blond snorted.

Maybe she would have to do it herself, if they ran out of time in the end?

"… …How troublesome… …"

* * *

Trish took the sheet of paper with the strange symbol drawn in crimson from her pocket, and after heaving a sigh, she pressed the paper against the door. When it made contact with it, the paper began to get burnt slowly, just like what happened previously with her hand, but the paper stopped burning after a few seconds, and then she realized that the door of the cathedral was now opened.

She dropped the burned paper and opened the doors slowly. She still felt wary about entering there after what happened to her before, and deep down, she expected to get hurt or feel pain, but when she was completely inside that building, she was pleased by the fact that she didn't get any injuries, pleased by the fact that se wasn't burned alive.

She scratched the back of her head and wondered why he gave her that thing when she was his enemy. Then, she looked at her surroundings and scowled. There were some kind of cards, papers, with strange symbols drawn on them. They were stuck on the walls. They looked pretty similar to the ones in the library.

_"Those things are runes." It was a soft, monotone voice. "They can make people disappear, they potentiate magic, they act as seals and, sometimes, they can even alter the reality of things and places." A small girl with long black hair appeared in front of the blonde with a haughty look in her eyes. "He really knows what he's doing. Our master's power is overwhelming right now, so it won't be hard to bring him to the human world, but that would be a waste, right? Even though this place is now a demon island and everything around you is a portal to the underworld, if we tried to bring him outside without any caution… Well, that would be impossible if we don't want to wreck this whole island." A twisted, distorted giggle forced itself out of her mouth. "Runes are useful for that; they potentiate magic and they'll be helpful for our Lord's ceremony, among other things, of course, and they will be quite useful for controlling certain nuisances…"_

Runes?

Well, that could explain why the inside of that building was such a mess, why she couldn't enter there before and why she had the feeling that the opera house had changed a bit, but that also meant that she had to be careful; though she had a very good sense of direction, she could get easily lost there, and considering that her intelligence was average –she wasn't as stupid as everyone thought, but she wasn't a genius or that smart either–, she began to walk more slowly, carefully, trying to calculate every movement.

As she did so, Trish ghosted her fingers against one of the papers that were attached to the wall. They glowed faintly whenever she touched them, but she was pleased by the fact that they weren't burning her flesh.

That was such a rarity. Everything in that place –every place, every object, every person– was like some kind of a mortal trap for her.

And she was so focused in her own thoughts that she didn't realize that there was someone else inside there. Trish only realized that when she heard the sound of glass falling to the ground and then the sound of an exhausted groan. She stared towards the direction where she thought those sounds came from, and she had to roll her eyes when she saw him.

Again.

"You know, I'm getting a bit sick and tired of you getting in my way." She said with her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips. "Why is it that wherever I go you have to be there?"

He just looked at her over his shoulder. "Well, then you will be happy to know that I'm not going to get in your way anymore." He resumed what he was doing. "If you excuse me, I have more important things to do than having a little chat with you. Maybe next time. Don't bother me."

"Ah, so you get upset when I 'bother' you, but it's alright when you bother me, huh? Your logic really amazes me."

Trish, however, wasn't answered -and it wasn't like she was expecting him to say something. He seemed to be very concentrated in whatever thing he was doing.

He was bent down, picking crystal fragments -she assumed they were from a portal, but she wasn't completely sure- that were scattered in the floor and fitting them as though he was making a puzzle.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Trish put her hands on her hips and approached to him, looking defiant. Her eyes were narrowed in distrust and annoyance.

Angelo clicked his tongue and stopped to do what he was doing. "And I am trying to open a portal and I need to be concentrated. You're burdening me."

Her reply was a snarl and a blast of lighting that was sent to him at full speed. It ravaged the ground as it made a horrible noise that could have left anyone deaf.

He was long gone before it could damage him, and instead of electrocuting the teleporter of black hair and cruel smiles it pulverized the fragments of crystal he oh-so-carefully, with a face that was a picture of concentration, was trying to fit, like a puzzle.

All the work he has been doing for two hours seemed pointless now.

"You… woman… I don't understand you…" She realized he was behind her, but didn't turn around to face him. "I'm not trying to kill you and I don't have any kind of intention to stop you or bother you and… You still want to mess with-?"

He stopped in mid-sentence.

Before he could end it, Trish spun around quickly. She moved so quickly Angelo swore he heard a 'swwwt' sound effect, as the air around her moving body was cleaved out of the way. Then, he felt unwelcomed hands pressing forcefully against his hips, so hard he had the feeling she wanted to break his bones.

Trish straddled his hips, and with a wide, wicked smirk, she looked up to him.

"I caught you~~"

"Wha-?"

He wasn't able to reply or react.

That time Trish had been faster than him.

The blonde conjured all the power she had, sparks of electricity emanating from her fingertips.

Lightning surrounded her body and her brows furrowed, as all the electric current emanating from her hands ran through his body.

Did he really not expect her to take control over him? It wasn't as if it had been terribly hard.

As the electricity burned his flesh, Angelo screamed loudly, trying to escape from her forceful grip, but it was futile. As he kept being tortured, he wondered how many bolts would be needed to stop his heart.

But Trish didn't have any intention to kill him.

She decided not to kill him; after all, he seemed to know about many things, and if he was dead, she wouldn't be able to get any kind of information out of him, so she began to relax, downing the intensity of her powers.

His screams soon began to cease as his eyes shut closed, and his legs seemed to just give up. A sigh of relief escaped from his bloodied lips. If she hadn't been holding him, he would have fallen down like a marionette with cut strings.

Trish was still holding the tired and barely conscious Angelo, whose body no longer could stand on its own.

Something strange, like images and distorted sounds and noises began to swarm through her mind. Trish bit her lips, scowled and narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate, but those 'visions' didn't disappear from her mind, and everything around her seemed to be distorting. Her vision was faltering.

She rested a hand on her forehead while the other still held Angelo.

"Wha… What the…?"

* * *

_He would save him._

_He cared about him._

_So he would come back._

_He loved him._

_He wouldn't leave him there in the dirt with her rotting corpse, and the demons._

_He wouldn't._

_Right?_

_Right…?_

_Maybe he didn't care about him as he claimed._

_The promise was a lie. All lies._

_There was something burning in his chest, and at first, he wasn't able to fix a name to it._

_In the end, as days passed and passed, he realized it was hatred._

* * *

She opened her eyes as though she had been shocked with electricity (ironic, eh?), and without being completely conscious, Trish dropped the man she was previously holding.

Angelo fell down gracelessly. As his face hit the floor and his eyes flickered shut as a sign of exhaustion, he could hear Trish's rapid breathing. She sounded as though she was in pain, as though she couldn't breathe. With her eyes wide as saucers and her lips parted in a small 'o', the demoness looked at her hands with an astonished expression, and then she looked at Angelo's pitiful form.

Trembling slightly, Angelo looked up at her from his lowly position on the floor, his bangs obscuring his face.

Trish stared back, confused and astonished, startled, and wondering what to do.

"W-What was that…?" She stammered, trembling.

Angelo gave a small, humorless laugh –and Trish wondered why he even bothered laughing-, and then, after that, he felt a searing pain that made him howl and close his eyes tightly as he began to massage his temples. "So you have seen it, right?"

She didn't reply; actually, she didn't do anything at all, save from standing there, completely frozen. Her mouth opened and closed, but she couldn't speak at all.

Finally, Trish's mouth managed to clumsily form words;

"H-how…?"

"It doesn't matter what I have to do; it doesn't matter who I have to kill; it really doesn't matter if the things I do are good or bad or whatever you may think." He began to stand up clumsily, covering his head with his right hand as he forced himself to stay conscious, which was an almost impossible task. "I must do this, regardless of what's good or bad; I just have to. It's simple, very simple, you see? But you just get in my way, always!"

Angelo's shoulders were shuddering, perhaps even more so than his voice. He glared at Trish, his eyes narrowed to a great extent.

"Argh, why don't you just leave? Why don't you leave me and tie yourself to a pole above a barbeque pit and DIE?!"

And then, just then, the man attired in black seemed to give up; everything turned white to him and his eyes closed.

As she held the young, unconscious man in her arms, she understood.

That was proof… that even such a douchebag like him still hadn't gotten over the pain and fear of hell. His partners were lying to him, but he just closed his eyes to the truth.

… …It meant that he lacked the power to withstand the truth. It meant he was far from being a demon, and he was even more far from being a human.

Then, what did that make him?

...

For the first time since she met him, Trish felt disdain –and maybe a bit of pity- for him.

* * *

**_A/N: *_Sfondamento: Breakthrough. When a very strong defence is broken.**

**I will probably take a loooooooong time to update this fic again. It's not that I don't know what to write anymore, it's just that writing this fic is now more difficcult than it was before. That doesn't mean this will be on hiatus; I will keep working on it, but it will take me more time, more than usual.**

**Feedback is always apreciated. Please, review and tell me if it was good, if it was an epic fail, if I made typos, if the characters were OOC... I don't know, something, whatever.**

_This story will not have a happy ending~  
-Bernkastel & Lambdadelta (Umineko)_


	9. Aggiornamento

**A/N: Four months? Urgh, I'm sorry! ;A; At least I didn't give up, right? :D If I could complete this chapter is because of the song 'Flowering Night' (Touhou) and also the game (EoSD, to be more precise)~~~~ :3**

**Benifuku: **I'm so glad this story is one of your favourites :D It made me smile when I read it~. Thank you :) And don't worry, because I will never quit this story and the pairing is still the same, DantexLady~ :3 Valeria is selfish, she is a villian, but I think nobody is more of a villian than anyone, so I don't consider her the true mastermind... ...And also, you will probably hate me at the end of this chapter... probably. I agree with your opinion about Trish. I think she should have more fics about her (and only about her, I mean). Sorry for this choppy reply and the late update ;A; And of course, thank you for reviewing and sharing your opinions and reading this. Your constant support warms my heart and makes me smile~ :3 I hope you like this chapter and I hope to see you here again :D Also, take care and cheer up~!

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 9: Aggiornamento**

* * *

Mundus roared.

The demon lord tried to hit Dante with his wings, but the hunter dodged them and kept on advancing towards him. When he was going to charge at Mundus, said demon unleashed another storm of lances over the son of Sparda before he could even touch the barrier with the blade of Rebellion. The hybrid proved to be much more faster than them, as he was able to dodge most of them. When the scarlet demon was alarmingly close to him, Mundus tried to use a punch to crush him like an insignificant cockroach, but again, Dante dodged the massive stone fist and leaped at it, landing on the appendage. However the devil moved his arm frantically until Dante fell over.

The man with the red coat quickly recovered and stood up. Without losing a second, he lashed out a huge black slash with Rebellion, sending it to Mundus.

The slash hit the barrier that protected the hell emperor, and once again, it didn't have much of an effect. It seemed to be weakening it, yes, but it was still there and it didn't seem like it was going to break any time soon.

Irritated, Dante turned into a demon and flew towards the angel-like demon who sneered at him. With Rebellion –and occasionally with his claws- he began to hit the barrier as hard as he could. The sound of glass breaking was like music to his ears, but it wasn't enough at all. Dante had to back off a few times, for Mundus wouldn't let him break the magic that protected from him and made him almost impossible to kill. The hybrid was forced to fly away from him more times than he expected when the colossal demon had tried to grab him with his massive hands.

When Mundus grew tired of chasing him, Dante resumed his work, now shooting at it with both his twin guns. His movements were so fast and he was firing so quickly it looked like a rainstorm of bullets.

In response to Dante's attack, Mundus raised each of his hands, and a large red sphere formed in the center. Bolts of red lighting connected swirled around it, and then, he sent it to Dante.

Dante flew down to dodge the sphere, but it seemed to follow him, as though it were a Russian missile. He swirled and twisted in the air, trying to get rid of the ball of white light as Mundus and his minions looked at the show with amusement.

In the end, Dante ran out of energy and the ball hit him, throwing him away from Mundus, making him revert to his human form and causing him to land onto the floor with a loud 'thud'. Panting and cursing under his breath, Dante began to stand up.

Something that bothered Dante was that every attack that was aimed at the demon emperor was blocked by one of those annoying barriers that the Nero-wannabe (or was it a Vergil-wannabe? Dante was not sure about it, he seemed more like a bizarre mix between the kid and his brother) created to protect him. Also, he couldn't focus properly on doing a powerful attack, since that other demon, Oray, was constantly throwing arrows at him, thus making it almost impossible for him to parry the arrows while trying to parry Mundus' attacks while trying to break that annoying barrier.

"What's wrong, sonny? Is old age catching up to yoooouu~~?"

Oray's annoying voice was making Dante's head spin. He turned his head to glare at him, but couldn't say anything as another series of red lances were thrown at him. As he tried to avoid them all, he fired his guns like a madman in an attempt to weaken the barrier more.

In response to that, a few purple arrows were thrown at him to make company the red lances. The areas that were hit by the arrows became paralyzed and he swore he saw them turning black.

Dante realized that when it was a bit too late and landed on the floor against his will.

He tried to move, but he was unable, and the only thing he could was emitting a growl and then a hiss as he tried to stand up. Mundus' took advantage of that and, with a smirk, he began to create a sphere of white light that would surely turn the hunter in nothing but ash.

He narrowed his eyes at angelic demon (oh, the irony) and tried his best to stand up to avoid the attack, and then charge at him again with all his strength…

… …

Probably, if not surely, that would work and-

"Attack you too!"

Faster than wind, than sound, than everything, the sphere was released along with a few more purple arrows. It created a great explosion, and they couldn't see anything for a while due to its destructive power.

However, Mundus was still not pleased.

He hadn't heard the wonderful sound of flesh exploding, nor agonizing screams…

And that was just unacceptable.

An outrage.

And he wouldn't let that happen.

The fog of dust cleared out.

There was a huge crater where Dante had been standing, but there was no sight of him, and instead-

"You look different since I last saw you, Mundus~. It's been a long, long while… It's a pity, really, that I had to see your ugly face once again."

If Mundus had been a human, his face would have turned red in irritation. His eyes narrowed into slits and his colossal form trembled in a failed attempt to contain his anger. Oray and the Vergil-Nero replica and even Dante shared the Emperor of hell's shock.

"You… …! How dare you…!"

The muffled roar that came from Mundus resembled the one of a feral, angry dog.

Trish gave them a side glance and smirked, twisting a handful of her hair between her fingers. As she did so, she began to move away of the crater towards Dante. "You seriously are like a kid. Did you really think we would leave you on your own?"

"You don't listen very well, huh?" Dante sighed.

"Did you really expect me to?"

"Actually not, not really."

Trish was going to say something more –her lips were parted and she emitted a low sound that slightly sounded like 'I'-, but she was interrupted;

"You little pest! How did you get here?.!" Mundus roared, and before she could reply to him with a witty comeback, he continued; "Aaaaaaaaarg, who cares?.! It doesn't matter! Oray!"

When he heard the emperor's voice, calling his name, Oray quickly readied himself for an attack, and as he pulled back a bowstring that quickly appeared from thin air, there, a dazzling violet arrow was readied. It emanated a black aura of malice, a very, very notorious black aura that swirled and sometimes disappeared to reappear again.

His actions were so quick Dante could only yell at his companion, wide-eyed as he moved his arm to grab Rebellion from his back; "Watch it!"

Closing his eyes, the shape-shifter demon released a single arrow. The black and violet arrow drew a beautiful pattern of dark mist as it flew, aiming for the blonde in the black leather clothes.

Oray was good at aiming, and no one in Mundus' army could block Oray's shots.

No one could escape them, and their strength could pierce almost all –he still needed to improve that ability, though- physical and magical defenses, capable of bringing disease.

Dante couldn't react in time, and when he already had the sword in his hand, ready to be used, there was a small purple explosion and a splat-like sound he didn't like one bit.

… …But if he wasn't much mistaken, he did also hear something 'break'.

To his surprise, Trish was... Trish was fine.

"You're useless without me, aren't you~?"

…And then there was laughter coming from above.

Dante and the unscratched Trish looked upwards.

Elegantly looking down upon them, Angelo stood on top of an angelic statue with a cruel smile on his lips.

"Dante, it is for me a pleasure to show you my wonderful plan B." Trish gestured her hand to the direction where Angelo was standing, talking in her usual breathy tone as if she hadn't been close to die.

Then, the man jumped from the statue and landed on the floor.

If Dante wanted to say something, that mattered very little, because Mundus' voice interrupted the triumphal scene.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!" The group turned as Mundus howled and spread his once-white wings, which now were stained with blood. "I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you! Miserable, worthless bugs! Not a hair of you will be left in this world! I will turn all of you to mush!"

With that statement, three different barriers materialized from thin air: A golden one that covered Dante and Mundus, a red one that covered Trish and Oray and a purple one that covered Angelo and his other half.

"It seems you have mistaken of group, Ange. That memory of yours sure is messed up. C'mon, come here and beg for our forgiveness." He showed him a feral smirk. "You're still in time."

"No." Angelo summoned a spear from midair. "And it isn't messed up at all." And then he launched himself across the room at his carbon copy.

At that moment there was a loud 'sving' and a crash, as Angelo's spear arced through the air only to end up smashed into the floor.

"DAMN IT!" Angelo cried, enraged, as he tried to tug his spear free from the ground.

His copy cackled at him.

"My, my. If this is all you have to offer me, then this will end sooner than I expected…"

"Shut up!"

"Then come, show me what you got! Surely, after all these years, you must have learned a few new tricks, right?" The replica said, euphoric, summoning spectral swords towards the man who was dressed in black.

Meanwhile, Dante was laughing and shooting at Mundus, making impossible acrobatics to dodge the angelic demon's dark spheres as he did so. Sometimes Dante hit the barrier repeatedly and got burnt, and Mundus used that as an advantage and attacked him by sending beams that he couldn't really dodge and left him momentarily paralyzed, just like now.

Dante hissed as he tried to move, which proved to be futile. Mundus smirked and reached his colossal hand to grab the paralyzed demon hunter and then proceeded to strangle him. Dante coughed and gagged and began to feel he was running out of air, something that pleased the prince of darkness to no end. His eyes were turning red and his face pale. He was twitching frantically and a red sphere surrounded him now and then as his form changed partially into one of a demon.

With a muffled roar, Dante turned into his demon form and exerted force to break free from his grasp until Mundus couldn't keep with it anymore, just like always happened; in the end, Mundus always opened his hand and let him go, so Dante, his prey, always escaped skillfully and quickly.

Dante landed and rolled on the floor, firing his guns rapidly at him. The bullets were very small and they didn't seem to be hurting Mundus a lot, but they were annoying him, which was something for Dante, at least.

When he more or less recovered, Dante jumped and dashed towards Mundus' arm. The demon shook his arm in an attempt to get him off of it, but Dante jumped to his other arm and then, before he could crush him with his other hand, he jumped again, landing onto his shoulder. After that, Dante turned into a demon once again flew towards Mundus' chest, positioning himself in front of him as his trusty sword began to glow in scarlet as black mist swirled around it.

Once it was fully charged, he threw Rebellion at Mundus' chest, causing him to scream in pain as it thrust deeply into his flesh.

The hybrid flew towards his back and got his stained sword back, and then he landed on the floor, behind of Mundus.

"What's wrong? You tired already? We've just begun!"

The ground trembled beneath him as Mundus roared and turned backwards.

From the left of the chamber, Trish smiled and cackled as she watched Dante fight and dodged Oray's arrows.

"It seems you haven't lost your physical form even though you've been living with humans." He said with narrowed eyes, trying to fake a composed state even though it was obvious he was disappointed and enraged because of the fact that none of his arrows had damaged her a lot.

"Or maybe it's just you getting old. How long has it been? Last time I checked you were like… what? 6000 or 7000 years old? At your age you should just sit down and read history books and rant about how much you hate Sparda and organize tea parties. Things like those~."

Oray snapped his fingers and summoned a golden bow. He quickly readied an arrow, aimed at her, and chuckled darkly as his eyes narrowed even more than before; "Don't get too cocky, incomplete, useless thing!"

His bow released the arrow which was aimed at her. It crawled down as it drew a soft, curved line trajectory and pierced Trish's chest.

The agonizing scream made Angelo turn his head to his left, but he was quickly brought to earth when his foe tried to finish him again. A burst of purple shot forth from his once-blue sword, turning into a stake-like weapon. Angelo ducked clumsily due to the fact he was distracted and exhausted, moving behind of him. The blade stuck into the wall in front of him. A few strands of his hair were cut in the process, though.

His counterpart's attacks were becoming much more brutal than they were before, and he wasn't a demon, so his healing ability –a spellcard he used very often, a present from Valeria so he didn't die in his first mission and always carried inside his pocket, along with the chalk- was a bit ineffective.

"You do realize what will happen if you kill me, right?" He asked him as his weapon tried to injure the other man but failed and ricocheted about the golden walls of the barrier.

"I'm reckless enough to forget about the consequences."

His carbon copy cackled at him, but didn't look like he liked foe's recklessness. "And what changed your mind, huh?"

He snapped his fingers and, in front of him, black swords –that looked more like knifes- appeared. Then he grinned and sent them to the black-haired man.

Whilst he was able to dodge a few, the others he couldn't dodge hit him repeatedly in different parts of his anatomy, leaving black, rotten-looking marks.

His legs falter. They feel week and they couldn't support him anymore. It was then, probably, when he realized that the spots that were paralyzed were the spots that had been hit by those swords.

He fell to the floor, on his knees, and he couldn't help it.

Angelo tried to get to his feet, but his movements were slow, laboured, and his legs didn't want to support him, so he shakes and stumbles, clumsy as a newborn deer -and he remembered, then, that he wasn't always like this.

The demon kicked him in the gut and then posed his feet on top of him, pinning him on the floor.

"I wanted to ask you… I don't know what trick you used to escape from the theatre, but that's irrelevant. Why is it that even though you could have escaped by hiding or by staying away from this matter, you took the risk of appearing again? … …It can't be that you came back just to help those two little pests, right?"

"… …Well… who knows?" He replied him with a cackle of his own.

"Why did you suddenly start to act so mildly? Your change of heart … … …That's what I wanted to ask."

Another cackle. "Because I'm fickle. I thought you knew that already?"

"You're tiring me."

More swords were summoned, and he could not avoid them. They pierced Angelo's body multiple times from both sides. They made a squeaking sound and tormented him.

"When it comes to you, there's no way it was a whim. …Hey, what changed you? I only stop so you can answer my question."

"… … …If you want to know, then you probably should do like Sparda, and waste a few thousand years to reach the answer." As he laughed, blood ran down his mouth, nose, and head. "What's the point in living if you're nothing but a dusty, broken phantasmagoria?"

Swords were summoned again, and they pierced his body again and again and again… The intense pain they caused ran in conflict with their beauty to the eye.

The devil bringer's human form was beginning to lose his patience.

Angelo coughed and grinned at seeing the distressed face of his foe. "Y'know, not answering what he is asked is also one of the pleasures of an evil demon~."

"Hm... Hmp.. Hahahahahahahahah~" The laugh was meant to have humour in it, but it didn't. It was empty and it only showed how inpatient the other man was. "Of course, of course, you don't have to answer. After all, that way I get to torture you!"

As he spoke and laughed at him, Angelo began to look for the chalk in his pocket, and when he found it, he began to write on the floor as he stared at him.

"What if I don't let you?"

His 'twin', as he called him before, ignored his last statement and looked at him with a smirk, watching how he slowly died –the color on his face has gone already-, but he pulled back when he felt the power that was being emanated by him –the last burst of energy that his body had-.

At the same time, blue spears, bigger than the ones he usually used, appeared around his copy. It was almost impossible to count them.

The collected expression on his face twisted horribly. "You wouldn't dare..."

"Try me."

"Stupid! Reckless creature! If you kill me, you kill us all! Don't you understand?! DON'T!"

The summoned spears placed themselves around him, moving in a circle-like pattern. There were seven columns with thousands of spears in each of them, glowing faintly.

…Finally, the spears plunged onto him, without giving him time to react and with an agonizing scream, he disappeared as the spears destroyed his flimsy existence.

Not that Angelo cared a lot.

He was beginning to lose consciousness for the third time in that day. His eyes were closing themselves against his will due to exhaustion. His breath came out as short, painful gasps.

His head lolled limply against his shoulder, and everything he saw before the blackout was the barriers breaking and then a white flash.

* * *

It was raining again.

Lady was beginning to get tired of the awful weather.

The petite woman with the dark hair heaved a sigh as she entered inside Dante's shop.

As usual, everything was a complete mess, and the local seemed to be about to fall apart. Dust covered all of the furniture, and Lady wondered when the last time Dante actually cleaned his place.

Lady wandered around the room while she tried to whip out her phone. Once her hand found it, she stopped and remained there, frozen as she dialed Dante's number.

Her heartbeat quickened and she felt a knot in her stomach when he didn't reply her call. Or rather, her calls.

That hadn't been the first time she had called him -first to his shop's number and then his mobile phone's number, and after thirteen missing calls, she started to think there was something off.

Snapping her phone shut she glared at the device, even though the fact that Dante left without saying a word to her wasn't the object's fault.

She really was angry with him right now, but not in the usual way she was used to; she had been angry with him before -so many times she had got tired of counting-, yes, but it was because of him annoying her just because of boredom or because of his arrogant cocky behaviour or because of his filtry dialogues and teasing.

And then, she thought (considered) that maybe... ...

Her body tensed sharply and she turned extremely pale.

It couldn't be... That... would be impossible, right?

...

...

Dead?

She couldn't imagine life without him. Dante couldn't be dead. They had known each other for too long, been through so much, too much... She couldn't help but feel sad at the thought of him dying, and she hated to admit that she had become fond of the half demon.

While she kept thinking and glaring down at the mobile phone, she realized there was something on the desk that she hadn't noticed before.

Lady put her mobile inside a pocket of her shorts, made her way to the desk and grabbed what seemed to be a white envelope. It looked new, due to the whiteness, smell and texture of the letter. She narrowed her eyes at it.

The emblem of the order of the sword was drawn in it, and there was a red sealing wax with the same symbol.

With a sigh, she proceeded to open it and read the letter's contents.

* * *

The chamber was, without a doubt, a bloody mess.

There was fresh blood all over the place. The walls had been destroyed and it was a miracle the room hadn't fallen down yet.

The glorious chamber that held Mundus captive was only a ruined, once-fancy room.

The glorious, angelic statues that were placed around the circular room that was filled with silence were nothing more than a crumbled, haphazard mess of white stone.

A pained howl escaped from his lips as he tried to contain the pain. Everywhere hurt: his head, his limbs, his arms, his lungs... He couldn't move. He could only lay there, bleeding to death.

He was scared.

There was someone holding him close, pressing him against their chest, so close he could feel their heartbeat pounding in his ears.

...It was Trish, who was pressing his body close to hers, warming his cold, bloodied skin.

He shuddered.

"Are you alright...?"

Angelo shook his head slightly.

"N-No..." He whispered quietly, but Trish heard him.

"Hey you..."

She frowned and looked at him hesitatingly, and he closed his eyes and leant into her embrace, waiting for the inevitable.

Angelo didn't want to die, but he knew he wouldn't be there for much longer; his body was already falling apart.

"Ange..."

Her voice faltered. His pitiful form was too pitiful for her to stand. It was strange, because if this had happened a few hours before, she would have watched this scene whilst eating popcorn.

As he pushed his pain aside, Angelo grinned and spoke back;

"You shouldn't feel guilty..." He said, his voice even quieter than usual. "It's... not your fault. You were... just..."

It was getting difficult for him to speak. He was going to die soon, but... Perhaps that's fine. His existence was similar to Nero's... Vergil's... and Nelo Angelo's... He was already dead, since the very beginning.

Trish couldn't find the strength to say something other than the obvious, so she remained quiet, pondering. A part of her thought it would be easy just to run, but she wouldn't run away. Not this time.

Running away was a childish thing to do, and it wouldn't fix anything. She knew.

Trish was not a child.

She was a grown woman.

She sighed. "I... I don't know much about you. Actually, you seem like a moronic jerk who thinks of himself to be very clever-"

"Thank y-you…?"

"-And it might not mean very much... but I'm sorry, about everything. This shouldn't have ended like this." says Trish.

He was going to say something, Trish knew, but Angelo was unable to do so, because he had another fit of cough, and when he tried to speak again, he found out that he couldn't speak anymore.

Trish looked at him, her eyes never leaving his.

The wounds hurt.

**Hurt.**

And Angelo realized. Maybe it was too late, but he realized it all the same. They were all broken parts of one person. He, his twin, and that sassy human, created to be just tools. They're not real at all.

_He was already dead._

"...And I think this can be forgiven." Trish's voice was now an echo.

Angelo coughed more blood.

His time was already running out.

But that was alright. It was more than enough...

Because he might just have found out what it means to be 'real'.

It was time to be put to sleep and become a pile of ash.

* * *

**A/N: Aggiornamento: Adjournment. When a game is suspended but it is continued at another time.**

**Don't put that face. You saw it coming. Now, the next chapter will have a lot of Lady and Dante moments, and also Lady-centric moments, so the fillers are over~~~~~~~~~ :3 (I think... ;A;) Urgh, I have the feeling I rushed the battle scene D:**

**Thanks for reading and for the alerts and that stuff :) As always, all kind of support is loved. Merry Christmas to everyone~~~~ :D**


	10. Finale

**A/N: Here it is~! I'm alive! :D. Wohoo, now you understand why 'aggiornamento' was the title of the previous chapter, eh? Oh, not _only _because the final battle had been adjourned, but _also_ because I knew I would have to adjourn this story for a while ;A;. ****Again, thank you very much for all the feedback you've been giving me so far~. Reviewers and lurkers alike and those who put this on their alert and/or fav list get lots of virtual hugs and a plate full of cookies :3 (what can I say? I'm poor and I can only afford that ;A;). Thanks for reading this humble little fic, even with such lame updates ;A;.**

**Benifuku: **Hey, at least you don't hate me that much for it~! And isn't it sad? He wasn't even real in the strict sense of the word, but just a bunch of memories... Changing of subject, Lady and Dante will be the main protagonists of the last chapters -I just have to set some things right and that's all (or else, the plot (?) will go to waste), like for example, Trish's whereabouts: Trish, like Dante and Lady, will have a catfight, too. Aaah, *fangirl squee* my OCs are decent! :D Yes, yes, yes~! It's so hard to write OCs and make people like them (or at least, tolerate them). Thank you~! I'm doing my very best at writing them (and writing this).  
Oh no, you're not a moron. DMC (the first one) is pretty hard to complete. I've been watching walkthroughs, too, when I couldn't advance on hard mode ;A; (I'm so lame...). Yeah, I based the fight on some moves and fights from the first DMC (more or less...). About how Dante and Trish's fight ended...? It is explained here~. And once more, 'cause I like to repeat myself (sometimes)... Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! For still being here and encouraging me to keep on going~! =w= *glomps* Hope you haven't forgotten about this little one after all this time *sob*

**And again, I must thank my beta, bitbyboth. Without her, all of you readers would have read a lot of random things and misspelled words ;A;**

* * *

**The Chessboard**

**Chapter 10: Finale**

* * *

The exceptions to the rule always unnerved Trish's demonic and womanly ego. Usually, she didn't like to be wrong. Failure was not -it still wasn't- accepted in the netherworld, she couldn't have the luxury of not being right.

And old habits die hard.

Being wrong or oblivious only brought problems, and it complicated it all. And that was why she hated exceptions so much.

They just complicated it all. And sometimes, they hurt.

She couldn't see it. She, used to the calm, just couldn't withstand the true nature of what was before her. And she should have.

Trish, once she wasn't interrupted by coughs and ragged breath, had sighed, the sound echoing through the chamber.

She had felt annoyed with herself. Damn, she should have seen it coming. If she had, things wouldn't be the way they were now. All in all, she spent that small time she had for herself to curse and imagine 'what if' scenarios.

...

Damn it.

After an hour of auto-insulting herself, Trish knew that enough was enough and stopped. When there was nothing left other than ash and blood, she just stopped and vowed not to be wrong ever again -for today at least?- and stood up.

What was done, was done, after all. Trish thought it would be better to drop that subject once and for all, if it only brought unpleasant thoughts. There's no way she could stop. Act now, think later.

Morning came in the end, but nothing was settled. At all. At least, the demonic island stopped being demonic, and now that Mundus had to retreat, Fortuna shouldn't be having any more problems than the usual, and the portal should have disappeared. That's something, at least, but it's not a complete win. It wasn't even a 'win' at all.

"I'm a methodical person." Yawn. "All this adventure doesn't suit me if there's no win at all.*"

Yawn.

But first things first: that didn't mean the demon lord couldn't create another portal. Mundus received help from the exterior, which meant someone could put more runes again, and everything would start again and all they'd done would be for naught.

"...Fuck."

And she wanted to sleep, even for two or three hours -creatures of the night don't really need much sleep.

Her body felt numb and her mouth tasted like ash.

Ash and blood. Drinking some water would be very much appreciated, but she hadn't any with her.

Would it go away if she slept? Or if she took a shower? The smell of death on her clothes?

_This is really disgusting. Guess the netherworld still hasn't heard of etiquette, huh?_

She scratched the back of her neck and forced herself to stand up. She hadn't been training during night and day for more than ten years for nothing.

Trish knew she should be looking for Dante before he was turned into a grilled chicken, so there was no time to waste. And he must be around here, but she wasn't sure where -dumb devil. Why did he have to jump?

Urgh.

She had to think.

_Think._

What happened when the first barrier broke?

She remembered clutching her rotting arm tightly, wounded by a purple flash with the shape of an arrow -Oray's arrows.

Yes, that was how it went.

Meanwhile, Dante was laughing his ass off as he dodged Mundus' blows with impossible acrobatics.

She wasn't not sure how many minutes passed before all hell broke loose, but it began with their third party member being in trouble. She caught a glimpse of him, laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood and both he and the poser were yelling at each other.

However, she couldn't keep on leering at the scene at her right and had to return her focus on her current foe -until a startling noise of breaking glass sounded, minutes after.

It had been quick.

The barrier had faded, he'd faded whilst his twin collapsed because of blood loss and both emperor and servant lost their focus and looked at their right.

Before Dante and she could take advantage, the devil howled and the second barrier broke and finally the first, and the ground trembled beneath them.

Trish had tried to dash at Oray and smash his head in, but the latter dodged and hurried himself towards his master while trying to dodge bullets and ignoring those that managed to hit him. Dante had also dashed towards him and then there was a flash of black and white.

"_Not so fast!_" He'd said.

"Moron." She thought aloud, shaking her head.

The monochromatic flash became a huge portal engulfing Mundus and when its shape started to resemble that of a portal, letting them see a blurry black and red scenario within it that disappeared in a matter of seconds, taking Dante with it -because he had been stupid enough to run after him, even though he had the odds against him and Trish wasn't fast enough.

She did run, too, but instead of getting inside with Dante, her form collided against the wall, just on the spot where Mundus and his servant had been standing. And she had been useless. And she had seen him bleeding to death, and had been there in his last moments.

And that was all that happened.

Now, the question was 'where is he?'

"Where to go~?" She chanted as she surveyed the place she was in.

If she went back to the path she came, getting inside the grey door made of stone, it would be useless. Not because she didn't remember which way to go (she memorized the whole trajectory whilst the black-clad man tried to retain what little dignity was left of him by guiding her), but because she would end up in a place far away from the devil lord. Going back meant she would be on a different part of hell -when she was teleported, they ended up in some kind of a white theatre. There were stairs going up, but when she'd asked he'd said: they will get you nowhere.

_Keep on forward, until your feet can't take it anymore._

Something along those lines was what he'd said.

Which, more or less, made her think this was just some kind of place located in between two kingdoms? It wouldn't be so stupid of Mundus to try to gather energy in a place where he could recollect it from two places at the same time while not being bothered. Actually, the devil lord had a lot of armies and territories conquered...

She remembered, though, that his lair was somewhere located in a red and black place. With watery floor. If she went forward, would she end up in such a place? Or would it be better to go backwards? Perhaps Angelo had been lying...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

_Forward._

Yes.

Better to leave the door behind alone and focus on what was before her. While she was fighting, she didn't have a moment to stop and look -neither when she made her dramatic entrance, so now was, definitely, the time.

_He better not have been lying._

The room was circular and grey -everything made of grey stone, and then there were those statues made of white marble, all of them shattered. Everything was as she remembered -save from the doors before her.

There were doors. Five doors with vivid colours, and Trish wondered what kind of structure the place she was in had. It looked strange.

The she-devil came closer to the doors to further inspect them.

Starting from the left, there was a blue door, then a red one next to the blue, then a green one, then a yellow one and, finally, a purple one. Their colours were not the most peculiar thing, even though they were the only spec of colour the cell had. Trish focused more on the signs that had been drawn on them.

She was sure she had seen them before somewhere.

*On the red door there was a sigil of a eight-pointed star encircled by two circles. In the inner circle, between the points of the star, are written some Hebrew letters and ancient markings she didn't know the meaning of. There was also a star of David at the top of the circles and some kind of name in Hebrew at the middle of the star, too. The seal glowed bright crimson, and when Trish touched it with her hand, it didn't burn her as she thought it would.

Not thinking much about it, she moved towards the next door and inspected it.

*The green door had a seal with a glowing green circle surrounding a double-bordered square on top of another shape -a figure Trish couldn't quite describe. In the centre of said shape is a symmetrical cross and various Hebrew letters engraved at different positions inside the geometrical shapes.

Since she didn't have a clue about the meaning of that seal, she moved to the next door.

This time, it was a blue door*. The round sigil engraved on it was some kind of undefined shape encircled by a double circle. Inside the double circle there was something written -again, the she-devil did not know what it meant-, and at the top of the circle, a star was drawn.

Again, she didn't quite know what that seal meant -other than it was magic and it would probably cause some kind of effect that would get her in trouble or that would mess everything up. Better for her not to touch it yet and inspect the other two doors before deciding on doing something.

*The yellow door, next to the blue one, had a complicated pattern. Just like the other ones, it was a circle, a double-boarded circle. Inside the circle, in the middle, there was some kind of an eight-pointed cross with strange symbols. Inside the inner circle, there were some words in that foreign language.

…

Still no clue about what they meant and still no clue about which one she should go inside.

Reluctantly, Trish covered her eyes with one hand and began to chant a random song to herself whilst her other hand's index finger pointed one door and then another and so on with every word she said:

"Eeeny meeny, miney moe, catch a baby by the toe, if he hollers let him gom eeny meeny, miney moe~"

When the song ended, her index finger was pointing the red door.

That was it, then.

* * *

She first opened one eye, then the other.

Then she started to blink -with some difficulty because of the sleep in her eyes- as she turned around in her sleep, until she started to feel more and more conscious.

Grunting slightly, Kyrie stretched out in an attempt to wake up. She, being more or less a morning person, didn't have to struggle much, but yesterday wasn't an easy day for her at all. Her aching muscles and the numbness in her body proved her so. The grunting soon became yawns and the stretching out ceased, and she sat up on the mattress -if she stayed in the bed for long, she wouldn't have the strength to leave.

She looked at her left, where there was an small table with a clock on top of it.

Half-past eleven. Not really that bad of a hour.

Sighing softly, she stepped inside the bathroom and made her routine ritual as she always did and, once she finished, she went to the very small closet of her room to grab some clean clothes. The pajamas she was wearing weren't dirty and she was sure it could survive for at least two more days, so when she took it off, she folded it and put it inside one of the cupboards of the bottom. Kyrie didn't need much time to get dressed, so she was ready in two minutes or so.

Would he be awake now? He said some weird stuff yesterday... Hm.

The fact of Nero being in such a pitiful state unnerved the chestnut-haired woman.

Nero had never been sick. Never. And he wasn't the delirious type, if he were to get hurt. Yes, every now and then, the albino teen got himself hurt, but it had never come to that point -and the thought of him having fever was just stupid. ...And … … and then, the... … his arm, it usually never glowed in such an ominous way...

The room where the -at the time- semi-unconscious Nero was resting wasn't far from hers, just in case. Back when Fortuna was the embodiment of peace -a fake embodiment that did a very good job at deceiving-, their family distributed the rooms like that, too, just in case someone got sick, meaning that Credo's room had always been very next to hers, and then it had been also very nearby from Nero's. …But Nero... The boy never got sick.

Since she was very little she had been taught that, to be next to the people she loved -especially if they were vulnerable-, and Nero's cellular immortality (if that had another name, she didn't know), didn't stop her from doing the same to him.

So once in front of the door, she tried to make no sound as she opened it slowly, and with the same speed, she stepped inside, hoping she wouldn't disturb him.

But she, disposed to check out on Nero, found something else than the sleeping form of the teen she expected to see. And her heart started to beat faster and her pupils dilated.

An empty bed, that was.

Her heart did a small flip and her hands began to sweat, but she was cold, oh so cold.

What? ...What...?

Why is it empty? It shouldn't be.

She shook her head and tried to think about something comforting. With the wounds in his body, she was sure he hadn't been able to go too far -though the real question was why he left and where? …And she shouldn't be worrying too much. As she had been previously thinking, Nero was very tough and he was very resistant. Surely, he just woke up and headed downstairs?

Kyrie hurried up and made it downstairs, sometimes stopping to peek inside some rooms she thought he would be in, but there was no sight of him -Not upstairs and not downstairs. She even went outside, but it was as if earth had swallowed him. The clothes she wore did very little to cover her from the cold, so when she made sure he wasn't around, she got inside the building again, taking the warmth from inside as some sort of comfort for her frozen yet sweating body.

And then, it was right then when she started to feel light-headed.

"Missy, are you alright?"

One of the men that was watching the girl look frantically for something -or someone- decided that enough was enough. Kyrie, being the oh-so-famous friend (no, more than just a friend?) of that boy, looked distressed and he was sure it wouldn't be anything good for them.

The people around them started to become conscious of the situation, seeing the white-haired ex-knight was nowhere to be found -and he usually was with that girl.

The stares of the women and men around Kyrie were worse than any concert she ever had. And for some sick reason, she had the feeling this wasn't good. Nero getting hurt, Nero not recovering, Nero being sick.

Nero disappearing...?

"He's not here, is he?" She asked in a mumble.

* * *

For some reason she still didn't know, Dante was like a magnet for extravagant customers. Well, probably this time it was her fault, but still... It was a good thing she was already used to this kind of stuff (to deal with strange, dysfunctional people), though she still had a hard time to tolerating rich people's bullshit when they (miraculously) hired her. Just to think how much money those vases would cost made her feel sick.

Just... to even think that one of those vases cost the same as one (only one) of her customized weapons... or that it was much more valuable than her usual income...

She heard the wavering candle's flickering; the whole place smelled of incense and the woman's paintings really looked as though they were alive. Even if it was only 18:12 pm, daylight didn't last too long, and the arrival of darkness gave them a strange, ethereal quality. The walls seemed to be closing in on her, trying to suffocate her as the painted canvas and the persons' eyes in the paintings watched her every move as she passed and roamed through the halls.

This was strange, too, very strange, and she wasn't, by any means, dumb.

The servants she saw working on their duties when she first went there were nowhere to be seen. She remembered that that had been a lively day even though the place still retained a sense of pleasant serenity. Now, it was completely the opposite, but that feeling was also probably fueled by that sense of 'misfortune' surrounding her since she grabbed and read the letter that lay on top of Dante's desk. 'Are you a moron? You must have noticed, right?'. The doors that lead to the dinning room made a horribly loud noise when they were opened, cutting through the ominous silence. She stepped inside and closed the doors behind her.

"Welcome to my humble home again, dearest Lady~."

_Dearest Lady_ didn't like the honey-coated voice of the blonde, or the wide-eyed stare. It was unsettling even for her.

_This ain't good._

Valeria the customer was sitting in the same fancy chair where she was sitting when they first met her. Her long legs were crossed and she was wearing a long -and odd- scarlet gown. The black make up in her eyes and the red lipstick was striking and hurt her eyes.

"You have some business with us, I heard."

"And isn't he with you?" Mock perplexity seeped from her mouth, until Lady was left thinking that Valeria thought she was stupid.

"Unfortunately, he's on his way to become a grilled chicken and couldn't make it here." Lady snorted, not quite able to mask her annoyance when remembering he left her aside this without saying anything (and it was her job! The cocky half-devil was going to pay for it).

To hell with Dante and his whereabouts. She didn't give a rats' ass if he was being sodomized and couldn't make it here.

Either way, Kalinna Ann wanted to have some words with him.

She, the blue-eyed one, laughed. "It's not that bad, eh? Actually, there's no need for him to be there; it makes it more beautiful, the worry and distrust in your face. You alone will be more than enough."

Lady narrowed her eyes and growled loud enough for the blonde to hear her. "What do you mean by that?" She said speaking of the ominous letter, which she was now swaying back and forth in front of the blonde's face.

"My, you're so much fun. Please, don't get angry. That," she said pointing to the letter, "was meant to be for you, but I didn't have your address nor your number, so I thought it would be better if it was left in his shop for him to read and tell you. A good idea it was, in the end, as you have it now in your hands."

"I didn't mean that."

"Oh. Then, you mean the contents, right?

Lady nodded, keeping her little glare.

"… … … It's true, all the things I wrote. Certainly. There's no need for any of you to look for that demon." She laughed lightly again. "I found it myself. Your services are not needed anymore."

Lady scowled and snarled:

"You _what_?"

_Did I sacrifice my arm for nothing?_

"With a copy of my research. I went to find him all by myself... And it wasn't hard to trap him."

There was something in the woman she didn't like -ever since she stepped inside the room-, but she wasn't sure if it was the crooked smile, the fiery, eager eyes or the fact she was moving too much in the chair, crossing one leg against the other and then the other again and again. Or perhaps it was just that letter. It might probably be the first time someone tried to contact her that way, and furthermore, that woman even knew she would be harassing Dante so she would find it there... Because she said she left it there, which means Dante didn't know about that at all (and it didn't have any marks that would show that it had been opened).

The job. She found that job first, but Valeria stated that she wanted to meet the infamous devil hunter Dante back then, before handing it to her. He came and accepted it, both of them, but in the letter, she only speaks about one person; Lady.

Odd. It's like she isn't taking Dante into consideration after all the pain she had to endure to find him to avenge the daughter she lost (or find someone who might be connected to him).

But didn't she say she needed them? That she couldn't do that all on her own?

"Are you serious?" She asked, still scowling, still glaring, and starting to fail at masking her annoyance. Lady didn't like to be tricked with a job.

"I'll still pay you, sugar; don't fret."

"..."

The corners of Lady's mouth twitched a bit in anticipation; not in a sincere smile or an amused smirk -they just twitched, along with her eyebrows, forming a bewildering expression that had a mix of confusion and distrust. A part of her didn't believe that woman much. How could you when she was eyeing her and smiling at her like that? Call it intuition, but a lot of people had told her over the years that they would eventually pay her, and that was a lie. A big, fat lie.

"Mhm. It would be unchivalrous of me, would it not? After all, it was thanks to you that I found him: the devilspawn."

"...?"

"The ever so loyal dog of his, the one who brough him to us since the very beginning..."

...What...?

Lady's more or less calm expression wore off and was replaced by an ugly one as an invisible dark aura hovered around her. Bowing her head, her straight-across bangs obscured her vision and casted dark circles under her eyes as she thought about her next move, fingers twitching.

Lady thought she knew where the woman was going with this.

"...Ended up in being you~."

…

"...Who are you?" The words didn't come out the way she wanted them to, making her sound a bit... odd.

_Just who are you?_

The blond paid no mind to her question.

"...And this was all the proof I needed, to know that you really were the dog I was looking for... Maria."

The raven-haired woman started to sweat lightly at first.

_No, fuck... This really can't be over blood again... not again..._

Then, it got worse.

Despite the riot of unpleasant feelings, she forces herself to smile knowingly a little bit, pushing the ugly face she had been making away, though it came a bit strange -again, like her voice- and didn't really match with her red face, caused by the anger starting to build up and the reappearance of things she thought she would never think about again, ever.

But now... ...

The white lady snorted, eyes gleaming a bit in mischief, and humored the other woman in red, even though cold sweat was starting to form in her forehead and gloved hands. "Of course, go ahead; after all, I don't often find people stupid enough as to try to threat and talk shit to a woman with a rocket launcher strapped to her back. I'm more than willing to let you see just how much fourth degree burns can hurt."

It's a bad thing the sorceress wouldn't be fooled that easily.

"You don't have a rocket launcher on your back." She smirks a bit.

"..."

_Oh._

"...That doesn't change the fact that I'm still able to bust a hole on your pretty face." Her scowl hardened. "So cut the shit before I decide it's too late."

"You don't even remember at all, huh. That makes this easy. ...Yes" she chuckled, "you're so much fun~. Even with everything against you, in such a position, you still wanna fight. I think having you will be more fun than I though it would be." Valeria stood up from the chair, chin raised upwards in self-pride and arms folded in self-defense, denoting superiority. The smirk didn't wear off.

"I'm afraid you aren't my type, missy." She mocked as she prepared herself for the other woman to wreak havoc -as per usual whenever a psycho got a liking to her, which seemed to happen so frequently it was starting to be scary. "What makes you think I'm gonna let you?"

The slightly wide-eyed woman approached the lithe huntress who was very nearby the door for her liking.

"You're still here after all, and even before you even reached my chamber, you already suspected something, huh? That means I have at least one try for your recklessness."

Lady instinctively brought one arm towards the machine-gun strapped to her belt slowly, whilst the other one was slowly making its way to the door's knob. Once her gloved hand managed to touch it without (apparently) being noticed, she found out that-

"Try all you want; the front door is closed, sweetie~."

Perplexed and knowing that the older woman had 'danger' written all over her, the hand reaching for the machine-gun twitched a second and then grabbed it faster than she thought she was capable of. At the same time she pointed it to her, an ominous, glowing mist twisted in the air around Valeria. The woman smiled in cocky pride as the mist turned into two magic circles, each of them positioned next to her, left and right respectively, all of it happening in a rapid speed before the other woman with black hair could even react.

Lady had the machine-gun already pointing to her, but she wasn't able to say anything or start shooting as the other woman was faster than her;

"History is not painted with oils, but with blood!"

Lady almost had no time to dodge the barrage of red and orange glowing bullets that were fired at a rapid speed by the magic runes at either side of Valeria. The magic projectiles left burned marks in the places they hit, and some managed to burn a bit of the fabric of Lady's clothing as she ran and tried to avoid them.

The woman didn't seem to mind the property damages as she kept looking for the elusive lady who dashed towards another door she hadn't noticed earlier, behind the ornate table. She quickly opened it and stepped inside the room it led, which happened to be a fairly big kitchen.

"It may look big, this mansion, but you won't have many places to hide if I turn this place into mush, riiiight~?"

Lady cursed under her breath as she took a glimpse of a burn in her cast. Ignoring the not-so-good state of the material and the pain, she dashed trough the kitchen, firing relentlessly to her back and dodging furniture that was instantaneously burned down by the missing bullets of her pursuer. Valeria didn't look like she was in a hurry as it seemed she was going to chase Lady around the psycho-killer way. The aforementioned huntress opened the door out of the kitchen with a kick of her boot, and stormed inside before she got shot in a vital area.

Lady tried to suppress the pain as she tried to stop limping so much and run as fast as she could, but it wasn't really working, and amidst the dull sound of the bullet-storm along with the other woman's cackles and taunts, one single coherent thought crossed Lady's mind as opposed to her subconscious' mess of death-threats and loud yells;

_Why all the psycho people come at me?_

But it was short lived, and when one of the glowing spheres missed her head by a hair's breadth, her mind dispelled the thought and started thinking about fifty easy and cheap ways of killing bitches and half-devils. And that was why, right now, she was regretting having left her precious rocket launcher home. The voice of her inner self was creating quite the chaos as she tried to aim her shots to the woman's head -tried! She had to try.

Lady suddenly had to stop running for a second as she arrived to a bifurcation. Since she had to think quickly about which way she should take, she didn't have in mind where those ways would get her. Perhaps, even if she took the wrong path, she could use it to confuse the other woman behind her.

Without really thinking much over it, the brunette took the right path and kept on running forward. The blond, seeing that she was starting to lose her, started to walk faster. Still, Lady had already disappeared from her sight.

Valeria growled in annoyance and glowered. She had to run.

When she arrived to the corridor, she didn't have to think much about if she should take the left or the right path. Both sorceress and huntress knew that the latter mentioned was wounded. There were small splatters of blood on the once-immaculate floor from the right path.

_Too bad._

Said corridor had cupboards and whatnot, where stuff like brooms and mops were stored. There was a bathroom at almost the very end, and then another door that connected the corridor with another one. The other one had some other rooms -bedrooms for guests and a small study full of books and encyclopedias.

On her left, at the end, there was a staircase.

However, if she kept twisting and going forward, maybe she would find a way out. Valeria went forward, following the trail of blood until she arrived to an opened door.

And on the distance, very, very far away, her target -a small smudge of white and black.

Valeria's aim probably wasn't the best, as she was stupid enough as to almost get shot, but...-

"Let's hope this doesn't hit you in a place it shouldn't~."

The glowing glyphs formed again and fired, wreaking havoc

One of the bolts of magic energy that flew out from both of the floating sigils managed to strike the fleeing woman in the ankle. The force instantly snapped the bone.

Lady instantaneously cried out in agony and, with one of her legs no longer able to support her weight anymore, she fell.

Valeria hurried to the fallen woman, being careful not to trip over because of the length of the gown.

"Got you now~!" She gasped for air, and looked at her intently, but Lady didn't seem to have any kind of reaction. She just gasped as she tried to stand up -to no avail, but it is said that hope is the last thing you lose.

It was a bit sad and pitiable.

"Hmmmmm? Why aren't you saying anything?" The sorceress thought aloud mockingly. "Could it be that you don't care about getting caught? Do you? Hm?"

And if the woman in white wanted to say anything, that mattered very little because she was knocked in the head with the handle of one of her own guns by Valeria, who stole it from her when she fell down and the grip on the weapon faltered.

"It seems you don't."

* * *

_Reapers, Hell Wraths, Hell Wraths, even more reapers, more reapers... … Dante definitely owes me some drinks. _She moaned. A_nd two-hundred bucks for a massage, too..._ Then she downed her gaze to look at herself. _And new clothes. _Trish added to her mental rant as she looked at the mess that had been made out of her beloved black leather outfit.

Covered in demon gore -as per usual- and some second degree burns that would eventually heal, Trish found the exit of the endless maze that Mundus' chamber was -or whatever the place was. She had forgotten how many times she had changed of direction, how many times she had been trapped in a dead end and how many times she had to undo her path to take another one or to go back to the circular room.

It wasn't fair. That magician had made it seem so easy when he showed her the way, when he created that portal with those runs, inside the cathedral. She thought she had memorized the path, but she was wrong -she couldn't even remember which door they crossed to get inside that improvised battlefield that was now surrounded by debris and blood.

In the end, none of the four doors seemed to connect to an immediate exit. At first, Trish opened the red door and embarked a long path of at least an hour and half of duration for nothing. The worse was to go back where she started. The feeling of dissatisfaction obtained because of her female intuition's fail hurt her ego. Trish had vowed not to be wrong again -but that was a lie. The yellow door consisted in being a long, almost endless, corridor with grey walls that seemed to get longer and longer the more Trish ventured into it. Moreover, it was plagued with the same demons from the previous corridor.

In the end it was nothing more than a stupid dead end.

Again, she had to go back and, once she was on the starting point for the second time, she took the blue door. And said choice was the worst.

The floor beneath her trembled whenever she made a step forward -oh, and the very best of it was that aside from those stupid bomb-demons, there was also a reaper that was followed her like a filthy stalker. The difference was that the stalker wouldn't have killed her. Sooo, forgetting about that pain of a demon, Trish had calculated that her trip would take her at least another hour or so, half of it destined to get rid of those demonic nuisances around her. Then, she found herself in front of a bifurcation. She first took the right path -and for nothing, because there was only one door that led to a bloody room where two filthy, bizarre dolls -anorexic, without eyes and very tall, both of them holding a pair of gigantic scissors lay. And of course, when Trish facepalmed and tried to get out of the room, they came to life. Of course they would. Everything comes to life in the netherworld-. And they obviously tried to kill her.

My, how unoriginal. Is there someone down here who doesn't want to kill her, anyway?

Aside of being annoying, they had nothing of interest. Trish supposed they were guardians, but she was not sure what they were guarding, so she left bloodied corpses of the demons there -wouldn't take long for them to turn into dust or be replaced or something- and start moving again, stepping outside the bloody room. The left path proved to be another big shit. She crossed a door that was at the end of the passage of that path, she kept on walking forward -it was the only disponible path- and found even more demons that appeared constantly out of the nothing. Obviously, she had to make it to the chamber again -but there was a twist when she ignored the demons and turned around and made her way to the door she'd crossed. When she stepped inside the first corridor, all of it was changed.

_Completely._

In front of her, there wasn't a path that lead to a bloody room, that room with the strange doll guardians -meaning that the right path had disappeared, and at that moment, there had only been a straight path whose end was unknown to Trish. Right then, Trish's body had tensed up as bolts of electricity had swirled around her. Said bolts of lightning ended up by manifesting in the form of a powerful bolt once she ended up in the same place again -the circular room with angelic statues that had been destroyed.

All in all, all the story ended with Trish having to undo her path and go back and then start all over again from the starting point -the chamber, again, the fucking chamber, repeating said action so many times she had forgotten. Moreover, that didn't end there, for Trish also got lost -several times, too many for her to remember, again, crossing doors and doors and more doors only to end up in an unknown corridor she hadn't seen before -this corridor being the one from another door. Like when she got inside the red door again and ended up -unknowingly- in Mundus' chamber again by crossing the green door. And that happened all the time, of her getting inside by using a door only to end up in a different place and get out from there by using a door she hadn't crossed -and her wishfully thinking she figured out where the exit was. In a desperate attempt, she tried to use the grey door behind her -and to no avail because when she found the end of the corridor, the door at the end of it brought her back to the fucking chamber she was starting to hate with a passion.

Truth be told, she still wasn't sure how she managed to get out.

She said in a growl:

"I fucking hate this place."

It was a miracle that she was out. Trial and error, it seemed. Either that or that someone or something had taken pity of the stressed, pissed off and desperate devil. Finally, after having got inside one of the doors -she didn't remember which one- and slaughtered more demons in her wake, she had been able to see a faint red light at the end.

And she was out. Finally, now she was out. Now, covered in blood and burns, she let herself rest a bit and turned around to give the maze one last glance. Apparently, she had been inside a baleful looking palace. A big one, too, but not as big as to have such a confusing structure. It must be some kind of restricted place or something , for Trish didn't remember having been there ever in her days as a servant.

Well.

That place was now history and it would be better for her if she resumed her journey. So she did, turning around again, but not before taking a look at her surroundings.

The view in front of her was of the same color the blurry portal had shown her. Red, red, red with smudges of black and orange. The soil under her covered feet was gritty and it was not pleasant to walk -if anything, it could be tedious to walk through it when the heels of her boots got stuck into it, which happened every now and then. Behind her, the palace stood unmoving and, in front of her, the expanse of red looked endless.

Red. Her former masters' domain was placed in a sea of red.

_This better has not to be another labyrinth._

There were some rotten trees on her right and left, silent guardians of that isolated, lonely plain. Short, black, leafless trees that she supposed were the black smudges she saw in the distance. There were no alternative paths to her left and right -just trees and red eyes that watched her every move, not sure from where, though-; Trish had no choice but to keep on forward, having very little idea about where she would end up.

* * *

**A/N: Finale: endgame – The last moves.  
1* A line from Yukari Yakumo, demon of dimensions from Touhou. She said it on the ending of Imperishable Night.  
2* 7th pentacle of Mars – it is said to have the power to confuse the enemy.**

**3* 4th pentacle of Venus -any person the owner desires will come to them.  
4* 5th pentacle of Jupiter -it makes people see visions  
5* 2nd pentacle of Sun -represses the arrogance and pride of those who oppose to the wishes and plans of the owner.**

**I haven't forgotten about Nero. See? Someone noticed he wasn't there~ :3. And no. no, it wasn't laziness the emotion that drove me not to make Kyrie look out for Nero in this chapter ;A;. I'm keeping that for later.**

**_Next chapter's contents: Trish reaching a sore and meeting an interesting demon and having a nice conversation with him that will answer some questions. Lady waking up and wreaking havoc -or trying so, at least. Some pages dedicated to Valeria (two or three?), Trish on a motherfucking boat and Dante trying to figure out where he is and where he must go~. _**


End file.
